Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston (Texas Classics)

I bought “Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston” by Edward Cotham, Jr. after I read James Schmidt’s “Galveston and the Civil War: An Island City in the Maelstrom.” Both authors are serious amateur historians with a passion for Civil War era Galveston history who energetically researched archives. Their books are complementary. Each runs under 200 pages excluding footnotes and bibliographies.“Battle on the Bay” is focused more tightly on the Civil War years and the the units directly and indirectly engaged in the struggle for Galveston. Cotham has no illusions that Galveston was peripheral. At all times total combatants were well under 10,000. Both sides were consistently under resourced and received fleeting attention from Washington and Richmond. This worked to the Confederate defenders advantage as did poor U.S. Army-Navy coordination and lack of theater focus by General Nathaniel Banks in New Orleans.Cotham makes a convincing argument that the Confederates benefitted from Davis’ decision to relegate John Magruder, judged by Lee a failure, to Texas. Magruder excelled as a small unit independent commander. Moreover, his bold high risk approach worked when he recaptured Galveston with assets would have cost the Confederates little had he failed. Magruder also was a master at bluff. His projection of robust fortification probably discouraged a successful counterattack until he had defenses judged not worth the cost of assaulting.Cotham's detailing of force projection also illustrates how contingency impacted Civil War battles. Magruder took 3 months to mount a counterattack after the Navy captured Galveston in October 1862. He could because he co-opted the survivors of General Sibley’s failed New Mexico campaign. He faced 3 companies of Col. Issac Burrell’s 42nd Massachusetts. Cotham’s research suggests Burrell was a good commander of a hard luck unit that should have won. Bad boats and weather stranded the rest of the regiment. Banks frustrated Texas Military Governor A. J Hamilton efforts to deploy Col. Edmond Davis’ First Texas Cavalry. Davis and the advance guard arrived days after Galveston fell and narrowly missed capture. Banks also issued ambiguous orders to Col. Burrell who then deferred to the Navy and position his troops in an indefensible location where they surrendered when promised Navy back up failed.Catham under appreciates Military Governor Hamilton whom he treats as something of a sham figure. Readers can usefully consult “Colossal Hamilton of Texas” by John Waller. It is dated and inaccurately summarizes the battle. However, Waller makes a better case that Hamilton, a Texas Congressman who stayed loyal to the United States, was a plausible choice as Military Governor. Hamilton had conferred with Lincoln and Stanton and he had a serious strategy to use Galveston as the base to begin a campaign to reestablish Federal authority in Texas. Catham’s treatment of the significance of slavery in Galveston also is weaker than Schmidt’s although he does supplement Schmidt with an estimate how many slaves were worked to death building Magruder’s fortifications.

The details have led me to invest in more books about the War in Texas.

As a big history buff, I've not come across most of the details of this particular time in other books before. I know of the "battle of Galveston" and Sabine Pass, but not all the background details that are just as fascinating - or more - and so worthy of attention.The author did a fine job with this. The writing style and quality are above most books that I've read on Texas history, and that is many. That and the interesting details are the reason for an easy 5-star rating.And just look at the publisher: University of Texas Press (the premier source of Texas historical books). The staff there do not mess around or play games. They won't release a trivial or substandard book.One other note. This isn't a "war book" by any means. Yes, it includes particulars of those maneuvers, but I'm not a war buff or war enthusiast, and I still enjoyed this book. You don't need to be interested in the Civil War to like this. If you like Texas history, especially from the early years (first 50 years of the state's development), I believe you will like this. Even good Sam Houston shows up in the book.

"Gen. Magruder will attack the Yankees at Galveston by water and land tommorrow night...If the Yankees fight well it will be a desperate affair & our loss maybe terrible, but if we succeed entirely of which I think there are reasonable hopes it will be a brilliant affair. Galveston will certainly suffer great injury, and may be entirely destroyed. I don't care for this if the enemey can be capture. "William Pitt Ballinger, December 30, 1862I bought this book last August (2005) while on vacation to Galveston. A shop (on the Strand) in one of the buildings that survived. I walked the down town area and there are few marks that a battle was fought there. Some bullet holes and marks on walls can be found. There are Historical markers but I wish there was more. Like maybe the smoke in the air from cannons and Men rushing the docks with bayonet musktes :) Galveston does have awesome beaches and this is a very fun book. I could not put the book down once I started reading! Included are good maps and photo's of what happen.What would you do as Gen. Magruder as you face a superior enemy fortified on Kuhn's Wharf (and with control of the city/island) with the USS Navy backing him up in the bay? The outcome of Texas is in your hands!