Jack Coombe

It is becoming standard that a history book's rating is dependent on the quality of its maps. A map makes the battle descriptions come alive with a clarity and precision that makes the best history. I enjoyed the details of river boat construction and usage; ironclads, tin clads, cotton clads, rammers and mines make a lot more sense now. But with the battles, especially Vicksburg, the lack of any decent map (a poor, hard to read with a huge scale for the whole theater is the only one included), understanding movement and timing is next to impossible. The depth of description and coverage is fairly good, but this book could have been much more.… (altro)

Coombe’s book is, unfortunately, one that is marred by numerous errors typographical (“McLernand”, “seccession”) and factual (Essex was not a timberclad, and one of the three original timberclads was the Conestoga, not the “Saratoga”). This suggests that it received poor editing, or no editing. In addition, the maps are inadequate. Only one of them, a general map of the Mississippi region appears to have been drawn for this book. Many places cited in the text are not shown. The remainder of the maps, as far as I could tell, were copied from Battles & Leaders. Some of them are fine, while others are too dark. A similar problem pertains to the illustrations — they are too small, dark, and grainy.… (altro)

As a basic overview of the Mississippi River battles the book achieves its goal in my opinion. I think that this book would be better used if one has a wider knowledge of the war in general because he tends to mention some land battles offhand and without comment while those happening close to the rivers in question will give a little bit of information on them. Some folks have said that there is nothing new being presented that all the other sources have noted but, hey, its cheap and its a general overview not a groundbreaking study. But having not run across much naval books on the Civil War in the bookstore this was worth sinking my teeth into and will only be the jumping board for future research.… (altro)