Most military histories of the Civil War place naval campaigns in a subordinate position. Yet these campaigns were essential to the ultimate Union triumph. Naval blockades helped cripple the Southern economy, and Union mastery of the rivers eventually cut the Confederacy in half, destroying Southern long-distance commerce and troop mobility. Symonds’ account of the campaigns, strategies, tactics, and personalities that characterized the naval conflict is both detailed and comprehensible for laypersons. He effectively places the naval war within the broader context of an emerging industrial age, as steam and steel led to great changes in the construction and use of warships. The author uses a topical approach, with his descriptions of the Union blockade and Confederate efforts to thwart it particularly interesting. A good addition to Civil War collections. --Jay Freeman