Book Review: Lincoln and his Admirals

Military Review

LINCOLN AND HIS ADMIRALS, Craig L. Symonds, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008, 430 pages, $27.95.

Distinguished author and historian Craig Symonds has written a gripping and insightful book about President Abraham Lincoln, his Department of the Navy, and the Union admirals who won the Civil War. While highlighting the Union naval strategy and key personalities of the war, the book is really an intensive examination of Lincoln - his role as commander-in-chief, his decisionmaking processes, and his exercise of civilian control and management of the military in time of war.

By his own admission, Lincoln knew little of ships, but over four years, he evolved into a wartime commander-in-chief who was able to effectively manage the Navy and coerce and cajole its chiefs into action, either alone or in joint operations with the Army. Despite possessing a coterie of strong-willed naval advisors with divergent opinions, Lincoln often had to make some subtle and difficult decisions alone. Symonds illustrates this with the famous Trent affair, which risked war with Great Britain over the controversial seizure of a British ship on the high seas.

Symonds is highly qualified to write this story. As Professor Emeritus at the U.S. Naval Academy, he has written a number of books on sea power, including Decision at Sea and Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan. Symonds is a talented author who keeps the reader engrossed from the first page. I particularly appreciated his ability to show Lincoln's strong interest in technology, ranging from ironclads to new weapons. The book is superbly researched with a portfolio of primary and secondary sources. I recommend this book to all officers attending professional military institutions for the insights it offers to the Civil War period at sea and Lincoln as commander-in-chief.

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