John Wilkinson (5) (1821–1891)

True to its title, this book is a personal memoir of Captain John Wilkinson, CSA Navy, which focuses on his exploits as a blockade-runner during the Civil War. It is a well-written, rapidly moving tale of adventure and high-seas drama. Shortly after the war commenced, Wilkinson, like many other naval officers who had left the United States Navy to join the Confederacy, found himself without a ship and was thus assigned to the command of a naval battery at Ft. Powhatan, on the James River show more near City Point. When the fort was abandoned, Wilkinson was transferred to another battery above Acquia Creek on the Potomac River. In the spring of 1862, Wilkinson was ordered to the river fleet assembling near the forts Jackson and St. Phillip below New Orleans. He was appointed executive officer of CSS Louisiana, an incomplete ironclad. His description of this vessel and its subsequent trial of fire and untimely death is illuminated with an explanation of the many difficulties encountered with this vessel, including ill-cut gun ports and a woeful lack of manpower. After being forced to scuttle the Louisiana, Wilkinson was captured and sent to Ft. Warren where after a few months he was exchanged. His confinement however, was not without controversy. Two of the most interesting exploits discussed in this story are a couple of aborted attempts to rescue Confederate prisoners, first at Johnson's Island on Lake Erie, for which the rescuers assembled in Canada, and another, in the waning months of the war, to rescue prisoners at City Point. Both expeditions were cancelled but reflected a growing desperation in the South for manpower. Wilkinson also provides very colorful descriptions of Bermuda and Nassau, two of the most popular ports visited by blockade runners. While the irrelevant ideological ramblings so common with Civil War memoirs are kept to a minimum by this author, Wilkinson still manages to wedge into the narrative personal opinions of some of the most notable figures of the day including, Lee, Joe Johnston, Jubal Early, James Bulloch, and Confederate Sec. of the Navy, Stephen D. Mallory, of whom Wilkinson gives a particularly harsh appraisal. show less

J. Wilkinson, "Captain in the Late Confederate Navy"