Most studies of the Mississippi River focus on Union campaigns to open and control it, while overlooking Southern attempts to stop them. Neil Chatelain's Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861-1865 is the other side of the story - the first modern full-length treatment of inland naval operations from the Confederate perspective. Confederate President Jefferson Davis realized the value of the Mississippi River and its entire valley, which he described as the ...
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Most studies of the Mississippi River focus on Union campaigns to open and control it, while overlooking Southern attempts to stop them. Neil Chatelain's Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861-1865 is the other side of the story - the first modern full-length treatment of inland naval operations from the Confederate perspective. Confederate President Jefferson Davis realized the value of the Mississippi River and its entire valley, which he described as the "great artery of the Confederacy." This was the key internal highway that controlled the fledgling nation's transportation network. Davis and Stephen Mallory, his secretary of the navy, knew these vital logistical paths had to be held, and offered potential highways of invasion for Union warships and armies to stab their way deep into the heart of the Confederacy. They planned to protect these arteries of rebellion by crafting a ring of powerful fortifications supported by naval forces. Different military branches, however, including the navy, marine corps, army, and revenue service, as well as civilian privateers and even state naval forces, competed for scarce resources to operate their own vessels. A lack of industrial capacity further complicated Confederate efforts and guaranteed the South's grand vision of deploying dozens of river gunboats and powerful ironclads would never be fully realized. Despite these limitations, the Southern war machine introduced numerous innovations and alternate defenses including the Confederacy's first operational ironclad, the first successful use of underwater torpedoes, widespread use of army-navy joint operations, and the employment of extensive river obstructions. When the Mississippi River came under complete Union control in 1863, Confederate efforts shifted to the river's many tributaries, where a bitter and deadly struggle ensued to control these internal lifelines. Despite a lack of ships, material, personnel, funding, and unified organization, the Confederacy fought desperately and scored many localized tactical victories-often won at great cost - but failed at the strategic level. Chatelain, a former Navy Surface Warfare Officer, grounds his study in extensive archival and firsthand accounts, official records, and a keen understanding of terrain and geography. The result is a fast-paced, well-crafted, and endlessly fascinating account that is sure to please the most discriminating student of the Civil War.
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Neil Chatelain's book "Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861 -- 1865" (2020) offers a detailed study of the Civil War on the Mississippi River and its tributaries from the perspective of the Confederate war effort. Students of the Civil War will have a broad familiarity with actions on the Mississippi, including the Union capture of New Orleans in 1862 and its successful capture of Vicksburg in July, 1863, Chatelain's book is valuable and fresh because it takes an integrated view of the history of Mississippi River operations from the beginning of the Civil War to the end and because it focuses on Confederate operations. Chatelain is an adjunct professor of history at Lone Star College, North Harris, Texas and the author of an earlier and related study, "Fought Like Devils: The Confederate Gunboat McRae." (2014).
The book is carefully written and organized with thorough research and use of source material. Chatelain explores the centrality of the Mississippi River to the Civil War and the manner in which the Confederacy tried to defend the River in the face of many obstacles, most crucially its initial lack of a navy. The Confederacy also faced a lack of manufacturing capacity and of workers together with a lack of railroads.
The book explores the Confederacy's efforts, initially centering in New Orleans, to build a fleet of ironclads to hold the Mississippi River. The work moves between efforts and building and manning a fleet and military operations at different parts of the Mississippi. Chatelain integrates, for example, the falls of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in 1862 on the upper Mississippi River Valley with the Union capture of New Orleans in April 1862 and stresses how the length and breadth of river operations worked against the Confederacy.
Chatelain explores actions on the Mississippi and its tributaries that are important and often overlooked. He examines some crucial actions involving Ship Island, for example, that were pivotal to the later larger campaigns. He also discusses naval actions in Louisiana after the fall of New Orleans that are not often studied.
The book is somewhat brief on the fall of Vicksburg, largely because Grant's overland campaign has been extensively studied. But it examines in detail the Union's unsuccessful first campaign against Vicksburg following the fall of New Orleans. Chatelain studies extensively Confederate operations on the tributaries of the Mississippi, including the White, Yazoo, and Red Rivers. Much of Chatelain's discussion helped me understand the Union's success in running past large fortifications, particularly at Vicksburg, New Orleans, and elsewhere.
The book develops and assesses the way in which the Confederacy worked to defend the Mississippi River Valley. Chatelain finds that in many ways the Confederacy tried valiantly to do much with little while in other ways it did poorly, especially in matters involving organization and command structure.
The book includes several maps together with historical photographs of Confederate ships and leaders that enhance the text. The book includes a useful glossary of terms important to naval vessels and weapons. Chatelain also offers a good overview of earlier historical writing on his subject. An important recent predecessor study is James McPherson's "War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861 -- 1865" (2012).
Chatelain has written a solid study of the Confederate war effort on the Mississippi River which enhanced my knowledge of the Civil War. The book will be of most interest to readers with a passion for studying the Civil War and with some basic knowledge of the conflict, including actions on the Mississippi River. The publisher of this book, Savas Beatie, kindly provided me with a review copy.
