Patrick O'Brien equivalents and such

Bob Fugate writes on the McClellan Society board, "I've seen a nautical author named James L. Nelson acclaimed as the Patrick O'Brian for the ACW, but I've written it off as hyperbole."

Don't know much about him. I see he has a lot of non-ACW work out.

Here are all of his ACW titles that I could locate: Thieves of Mercy, A Novel of the Civil War at Sea; Glory in the Name, A Novel of the Confederate Navy; and the nonfiction Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack.

On a related book note, I was reading this review of a new book, The Last Shot: The Incredible Story of the CSS Shenandoah and the True Conclusion of the American Civil War. Found myself disagreeing with so much, I started writing down all of the critic's objectionable comments:

Recent headlines have proved a vindication of sorts for frustrated historians who cringe at the question, "Why should I care about something that happened ages ago?" Suddenly, "Deep Throat" is on the nation's lips almost as breathlessly as it was 35 years ago.

I love the news-centric world-view of this character, who edits the letters page on the Seattle daily. Current events do not "vindicate historians." Neither the news business nor "relevance" have anything to do with reading history.

So why should we care about "The Last Shot," Lynn Schooler's entry into the Civil War canon?

Perhaps because it approaches truth, addresses our interests, and is a good read? No:

"Substitute "red state" or "blue state" for South and North and you can hear that shot resonate today.

You need to get out of the newspaper offices my friend. At least once per week.

This is a seafaring tale and as such, Schooler remarks only briefly on the immorality of the Southern cause. That men of no small virtue nonetheless prosecuted that cause is demonstrated throughout the tale.

We're talking here about the Shenandoah, a warship that preyed on unarmed whalers and sank them with their crews in Arctic waters. No small virtue among murdering war criminals.

It did, however, herald the Confederacy's one enduring triumph, the extinction of the whaling industry.

Er, maybe - possibly - you mean the extinction of bowhead whaling in Siberian waters. The Confederacy eventually sank about 50 Yankee whalers; almost as many again went down in storms in 1871 and 1876.

Whaling was done in by Edison's electric lamp.

But why should we care? Wait, I've got it: Deep Throat occasionally used an electric lamp.