This Great Contest Afloat: The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans

Savas Beatie, 2026

Podcast with Emerging Civil War about the book This Great Contest Afloat.

"History offers no example where so much was accomplished in so short a times, or where so many events were crowded into the space of four years, in which the Navy was employed subduing a coast over four thousand miles in length, and recapturing a river-coast of more than five thousand miles," wrote Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter in his 1886 The Naval History of the Civil War.

Porter's words demonstrate the true scale of the Civil War's naval activity. Thousands of ships took part, fighting battles alongside the armies and patrolling the globe. The actions of more than 100,000 sailors on both sides impacted military, naval, economic, and diplomatic aspects, all while providing the tools to realize the Anaconda Plan of isolating and splitting the Confederacy.

Unlike the army dividing its efforts into the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters, the Civil War's naval forces fought in four distinct theaters of conflict. The offshore blockade was an economic and logistical campaign waged to determine whether Southern armies would remain properly supplied. Sailors enacting that blockade worked in tandem with armies to assault cities and coastal areas to deny the Confederacy its port and coastal infrastructure, while Confederate sailors fought to both break the blockade and keep control of its ports. Meanwhile, fleets on both sides battled for control over the Mississippi River Valley in an effort to cleave off the Trans-Mississippi Theater from the rest of the Confederacy. Finally, an economic and diplomatic war was waged across the oceans, where Southern privateers and commerce raiders prowled for Federal merchant ships.

In This Great Contest Afloat: The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans, award-winning historian and professor Neil P. Chatelain unpacks each of these naval theaters. Using prolific firsthand accounts merged with keen macro analysis, Chatelain invites readers to board blockade-runners, tread the beaches during coastal assaults, ride on riverine ironclads, and sail on targeted merchant vessels, all while demonstrating the extent and impact of Civil War naval activity.

"Featuring black and white illustrations throughout, This Great Contest Afloat: The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans by Professor Neil P. Chatelain is an extraordinary work of meticulous historical scholarship and an unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university American Civil War History collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists."
Midwest Book Review

Chatelain "manages to present a remarkably comprehensive account of naval actions ranging from individual ship engagements to squadron level battles. ...Strong synergy between main text and supporting visual aids (among the latter abundant photographs, period drawings, and original maps) has been a major force behind the appeak and popularity of the ECW series of books, and this one excels in that category." This Great Contest Afloat is "a great option for those seeking an updated introductory-level Civil War naval history."
Civil War Books and Authors

"Neil P. Chatelain shows that the naval theater of the war was essential to the aspirations of both the United States and the Confederacy. ... The naval theater of the war provides a fascinating entry point to the Civil War, especially for those with interest in diplomatic relations, international trade, and maritime technology. Those already familiar with the war will likely be surprised by how different naval warfare was from the traditional theaters of war, yet how essential it was to the success of what was planned on land. This Great Contest Afloat will whet the curiosity of the reader - and hopefully inspire more work on the war's naval theater."
Melissa Kenfield, in Civil War Monitor

"How does this work compare with James M. McPherson's War on the Waters: The Union & Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 (2012)? Both are starting points to obtain a general knowledge of what the naval forces achieved during the Civil War, and both discuss how this conflict was truly worldwide. The two authors agree on the excellent naval leadership and demonstrate how the navies shaped the outcome of the war, offering important perspectives on this topic. McPherson approaches the narrative in a chronological fashion, providing more fluid overview. Chatelain prevails in his discussion of the blockade and gives readers a more granular view of the smaller engagements and their consequences."
Robert M. Browning Jr., in Civil War Navy - The Magazine

Below are the Digital Footnotes and Bibliography for This Great Contest Afloat:

Notes - This Great Contest Afloat.docx

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