Welcome to the CWSMMA - we are glad you stopped in.

Through a generous gift of Mr. William C. Holcomb
to the Harvard College Library

~ we present ~

By Admiral David Dixon Porter

"Several books claiming to be naval histories were written directly after the war, but as a rule these were of a partisan character, not written particularly to do justice to the Navy but to give credit to particular individuals who had a good deal to do in the matter of ensuring success, and who no doubt deserved much of the praise that was bestowed upon them; but in all cases the authors lost sight of the main object of the history, and that is to do justice to all, and not allow themselves to be diverted from the true facts because they may have had official relations with those they took care to applaud. There was too much of this in some histories which dwelt so much the virtues of the heads of departments that they forgot to do justice to those who fought the battles. In all the histories the author has read there have been serious misrepresentions, purposely printed and written with the intention to do harm to the reput of some who deserved not only the highest praise from the government but the from impartial historians."

"While our Army has been written of by a thousand ready pens, the Navy has 11 a rule, been a popular theme for the historian, and now and then only do we with some well drawn story of the Navy and the benefits it conferred upoi country. Our Army was full of writers who could delineate in the most happy mam the events that were transpiring around them—they were also ready with the penci photographer, while he traveled with the army, would spend his days in photog ing every noted scene, reprints of which were scattered broadcast over the U keeping the movements of our armies as clearly before the millions of people i North as if the battles had been reflected in a mirror. The camp, the march "bivouac, the battle-field were almost as familiar to the friends and relations of in the field as if they had been on the spot, but there were no such means of brii the Navy before the public. Naval ships did not travel with reporters, photogra or sketchers, there was no room for these on board ship, and if perchance some reporter should get on board, the discomfort of a man of war, the exacting disci; and the freer life in camp sent him back to shore, where in most cases he onl membered his associations with the Navy as a trip without any satisfaction, and no desire to do justice to the work of the naval service." Read more of The Naval History of the Civil War, By Admiral David Dixon Porter, (Click the book above for a free .pdf download).