A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah

In A Confederate Biography Dwight Sturtevant Hughes chronicles the journey of the cruiser CSS Shenandoah: both geographically as it traversed every one of the earth’s oceans except the Antarctic, but also emotionally; through the personal, political, and ideological experience of the men who served on her. Hughes quotes the famed captain of the CSS Alabama Raphael Semmes on page 1 that “The cruise of a ship is a biography. The ship becomes a personification”, the author himself stating that a ship can be “a central character in a life story through which we view more clearly our ancestors, their epoch, and their momentous war”. This broader lens beyond the cruise’s pure military effect touches such issues as international law and diplomacy, public relations, command relationships, and faith (whether in god, the cause, or even fellow crewmates)