From the Shelves of the Paco Library

The Confederate Navy operated at a huge disadvantage from the start: fairly early in the war, the Union had captured several important ports, and threw an effective blockade around the long Southern coastline that severely hampered the import of foreign goods, including much-needed military supplies. Small as it was, however, the CSN included a number of highly capable men, among whom one of the most efficient and daring was John Taylor Wood. Wood’s life is admirably presented by Royce Gordon Shingleton in his biography, John Taylor Wood: Sea Ghost of the Confederacy (University of Georgia Press, originally published in 1979).

Wood was a grandson of President Zachary Taylor, and a nephew of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Though born in Minnesota, and commissioned in the U.S. Navy, Wood was a southern sympathizer who ultimately threw in his lot with the Confederacy. He resigned from the U.S. Navy shortly after the outbreak of open warfare, initially hoping to maintain his neutrality as a farmer in Maryland, but the harsh military occupation of the state by the Federals under General Benjamin F. Butler decided him, and in October of 1861 he received a commission in the Confederate Navy as a First Lieutenant.

Shingleton sets the stage in the first chapter:

“A remarkable fighter, Wood’s Civil War adventures could easily have come from the imagination of a writer of fiction. He participated in naval engagements involving the latest advances in ship construction, motive power and naval ordnance (including the first battle between ironclads), but another specialty, an old method of sea warfare, was the cutting-out expedition. In a truly dramatic wartime career he seized over forty prizes, ranking second only to Raphael Semmes in the number of vessels captured. Most of Wood’s victims fell prey to the dreaded ocean-going commerce destroyer he commanded late in the war, and the remainder he captured by leading boarding parties in a series of midnight raids against Union ships. Moving his boarding cutters overland on wagons by day, the amphibious “Horse Marine” suddenly emerged from an unexpected place at night to board and capture enemy vessels…Alarmed Union authorities distributed printed pamphlets warning their commanders against Wood’s surprise attacks, but there is no record that he was ever repulsed once he moved alongside an enemy ship.”

Wood was part of Jefferson Davis’ entourage during the Confederate president’s flight at the end of the war, and was briefly captured along with Davis, but managed to bribe a Union soldier who let him get away. Then began a harrowing trip through Georgia and Florida, and, finally, escape to Cuba. After a short time there, he made his way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he went into business with Captain John Wilkinson, a famous blockade runner, establishing a merchant commission house, and branching out into shipping and marine insurance. He died in Halifax in 1904.

Shingleton’s recounting of the adventures of John Taylor Wood, both as an officer in the Confederate Navy and as a fugitive making his desperate way through the Florida swamps, is exciting history that frequently reads like a novel. The book is a fine contribution to the library of American Civil War history, and provides a fascinating look at one of the lesser-known aspects of that war – the struggle at sea – and at one of its most colorful figures.