Description: "Thousands of black sailors served with valor during the Civil War. Yet few histories have highlighted their significant contributions to the Union's impressive string of naval victories throughout the war, which prompted Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, to declare that if the army could not win the war, the navy would have to. Drawing on official naval records, personal letters and journals, and oral histories of formerly enslaved Americans, this volume documents the service of fugitive, freemen and freed black sailors, 1861-1865"--
Brief description: During his 35-year federal and not-for-profit career James H. Bruns has served as Director of the Department of the Navy's Museum System, with administrative oversight of the Navy's nine national Museums. He lives in Lorton, Virginia.
Review Quotes: "Finally, there is a book that gives African-American sailors the credit they're due for the winning the Union's war on the waters."--Claude Berube, PhD, director, United States Naval Academy Museum, author of On Wide Seas: The US Navy in the Jacksonian Era