"Lincoln and His Admirals,” by Craig L. Symonds.
Abraham Lincoln began his presidency admitting that he knew "but little of ships," but he quickly came to preside over the largest national armada of that time, not eclipsed until World War I. ”Lincoln and His Admirals” unveils an aspect of Lincoln's presidency revealing how he managed the men who ran the naval side of the Civil War and how the activities of the Union Navy ultimately affected the course of history.
Beginning with a gripping account of the attempt to re-supply Fort Sumter--a comedy of errors that shows all too clearly the fledgling president's inexperience--Symonds traces Lincoln's steady growth as a wartime commander-in-chief. Absent a Secretary of Defense, he would eventually become de facto commander of joint operations along the coast and on the rivers that involved dealing with the men who ran the Navy: the loyal but often cranky Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, the quiet and reliable David G. Farragut, the flamboyant and unpredictable Charles Wilkes, the ambitious ordinance expert John Dahlgren, the well-connected Samuel Phillips Lee, and the self-promoting and gregarious David Dixon Porter. Lincoln was remarkably patient; he often postponed critical decisions until the momentum of events made the consequences of those decisions evident. But Symonds also shows that Lincoln could act decisively. Disappointed by the lethargy of his senior naval officers on the scene, he stepped in and personally directed an amphibious assault on the Virginia coast, a successful operation that led to the capture of Norfolk. The man who knew "but little of ships" had transformed himself into one of the greatest naval strategists of his age.
Craig L. Symonds earned his B.A. degree at U.C.L.A., and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida. In the 1970s he was a U.S. Navy officer and the first ensign ever to lecture at the Naval War College. After his naval service, Symonds remained at the War College as a civilian Professor of Strategy from 1974-1975. He is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy where he taught naval history and Civil War History for thirty years, and in 2017 he was appointed to a two-year term as the Ernest J. King Distinguished Visiting Professor of Maritime History at the U.S. Naval War College. Symonds is the author of twelve books and the editor of nine others. In addition, he has written over one hundred scholarly articles in professional journals and popular magazines as well as more than twenty book chapters in historical anthologies.