Again with the descriptions of battles. I just can't.

And I resisted this book a lot. I'm not a big fan of Civil War history. I live in the South and so I hear a lot about the "War of Northern Aggression" which is ridiculous. But here's why I liked this book; it addressed the concept of the Confederate States of America as the myth it truly was; a state which barely existed, never really had defensible, defiant borders. The thing about myths, though, is that sometimes people believe in them. This book gave me the story of men who believed, for good or bad, in a myth. And what acts they committed and what things happened to them because of this belief.

As with Dad's last pick, I found myself more interested than I wanted to be.

From a historical fact perspective, it's very interesting. I had no prior knowledge of this ship or it's voyage. However, it drug for the last 100 pages and personally I feel the summary is more interesting than the details. A good read if you're a history nerd, otherwise you should pass.

By 1864, the tide of the Civil War was turning in favor of the Union and the Confederacy, in an effort to break the blockade of southern ports and to attack Union merchant ships, commissioned some state-of-the-art ships in England and set them loose on the high seas. This book is the story of the Shenandoah, which sailed around the world, captured and destroyed dozens of Union merchant and whaling ships, and took over 1,000 prisoners. Unfortunately, the captain and crew discovered in August 1965 that the war had ended in April and that the Shenandoah was now being sought by the United States Navy as a pirate ship. In an effort to avoid capture by U.S. forces, the Shenandoah, which had traveled around Africa, visited Australia, wiped out almost an entire fleet of New England whaling ships in the north Pacific, narrowly avoided being trapped in an ice-field, and fired the last shots in the Civil War, sailed to England to surrender. A fascinating book about a little known episode in the Civil War.

Book dragged for me

Based primarily on the journal kept by the Executive Officer, Conway Whittle, it documents the Shenandoah's 58,000 mile journey from England to the Bering Sea and back. During the journey the ship captured 40 Federal merchant and whaling ships, burning most of them. What makes the story all the more interesting is that most of the ships were taken after the war ended. The crew was unaware of the war's end until August of 1865, several months too late. Once they found out the war had ended they sailed to England and surrendered to a Royal Navy ship at Liverpool. If you've never heard the Shenandoah's story, this is a good place to start.