Overview
Chief Engineer James Hamilton Tomb (1839-1929) devoted almost 12 years of his early life to wartime naval service - first in the Confederate States' Navy during the American Civil War and then in the Marinha do Brasil during the War of the Triple Alliances. A steam engineer by profession and a torpedo expert by circumstance, Tomb was in the forefront of naval weapons technology of the period. Tomb quickly amassed not only the knowledge required of a steam engineer, but also the courage and capacity to assume important positions of command. Within days of his commissioning, he was on his way to his first assignment - first class engineer on the CSS Jackson at New Orleans, Louisiana, a point of great strategic importance. Here, amid a tightening blockade and a growing fear of Federal attack from the Gulf, Tomb's memoirs begin...Tomb's first-person narration is interspersed with explanatory comments from the editor; the editor also fills in Tomb's life at the memoir's beginning and end. Three appendices include documents by Tomb: """"Submarines and Torpedo Boats, C.S.N."""" , written in 1914 for the Confederate Veteran Magazine, a private manuscript Tomb wrote for his family describing in detail his experiences with the torpedo boat David and submarine H.L. Hunley, and """"Reminiscences of Torpedo Service in Charleston Harbor"""", published in 1877 in the Southern Historical Society Papers. A bibliography and a wealth of rare photographs complete the work.
Full Product Details
Author: James H. Tomb ,
R Thomas Campbell
Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc
Imprint: McFarland & Co Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 17.50cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 25.10cm
Weight: 0.469kg
ISBN: 9780786449262
ISBN 10: 0786449268
Pages: 214
Publication Date: 30 August 2011
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
one of the most important Confederate naval memoirs to come out of the Civil War...insightful and revealing...admirable job...McFarland has done the field of Civil War history a service by making this manuscript available to a wide audience --Sea History; noteworthy...distinct contribution...extremely well edited...well worth the reader's time and money --The Civil War News.
one of the most important Confederate naval memoirs to come out of the Civil War...insightful and revealing...admirable job...McFarland has done the field of Civil War history a service by making this manuscript available to a wide audience --<i>Sea History</i>; noteworthy...distinct contribution...extremely well edited...well worth the reader's time and money --<i>The Civil War News.</i>
Author Information
The late Chief Engineer James H. Tomb (1839–1929) devoted almost 12 years of his early life to wartime naval service. Writer, editor and historian R. Thomas Campbell is a retired health systems consultant who lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania and Cape Canaveral, Florida.
