Confederate Admiral: The Life and Wars of Franklin Buchanan (Bluejacket Books)
Franklin Buchanan is best known for taking the Confederate ironcladVirginiainto action at Hampton Roads in 1862 and later commanding the ironcladTennesseeagainst Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay. During a long naval career, begun as a midshipman just after the War of 1812, he had already sailed aboard merchant vessels; served as first commandant of the troubled, short-of-funds Naval School (later the Naval Academy); fought in the Mexican War; and, as flag captain, accompanied Commodore Perry on one of the first diplomatic voyages to Japan. The first full-scale modern biography of Buchanan represents him as a superior seaman and administrator, a courageous combat leader, and a fond husband and father. He was also a disciplinary martinet, feckless with money, and too easily converted to a pro-Southern viewpoint by slaveholding Maryland in-laws. Symonds' useful book inaugurates the Library of Naval Biography, which, if subsequent volumes are as seaworthy as the first, should add indispensably to naval historiography.Roland Green--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.