Battle on the Bay

<p>The Civil War history of Galveston is one of the last untold stories from America's bloodiest war despite the fact that Galveston was a focal point of hostilities throughout the conflict. As other Southern ports fell to the Union Galveston emerged as one of the Confederacy's only lifelines to the outside world. When the war ended in 1865 Galveston was the only major port still in Confederate hands.</p> <p>In this beautifully written narrative history Ed Cotham draws upon years of archival and on-site research as well as rare historical photographs drawings and maps to chronicle the Civil War years in Galveston. His story encompasses all the military engagements that took place in the city and on Galveston Bay including the dramatic Battle of Galveston in which Confederate forces retook the city on New Year's Day 1863.</p> <p>Cotham sets the events in Galveston within the overall conduct of the war revealing how the city's loss was a great strategic impediment to the North. Through his pages pass major figures of the era as well as ordinary soldiers sailors and citizens of Galveston whose courage in the face of privation and danger adds an inspiring dimension to the story.</p>