The Best Station of Them All

Book excerpt: This is the story of the Confederate navy's Savannah Squadron, its relationship with the people of Savannah, Georgia, and its role in the city's economy. The author charts the history of the unit, the sailors (both white and black), the officers, their families, and their activities aboard ship and in port. The Savannah Squadron worked, patrolled, and fought in the rivers and sounds along the Georgia coast. Though they saw little activity at sea, the unit did engage in naval assault, boarding, capture, and ironclad combat. The sailors finished the war as an infantry unit in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, fighting at Sayler's Creek on the road to Appomattox. The author concentrates on navy life and the squadron's place in wartime Savannah. The book reveals who the Confederate sailors were and what their material, social, and working lives were like.