The Blockade Runner Denbigh and the Union Navy

 The Blockade Runner Denbigh and the Union Navy: Including Glover’s Analysis of the West Gulf Blockade and Archival Materials and Notes by Robert W. Glover, J. Barto Arnold III (2015)

This book considers the activities of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron of the Union navy in taking captive as prizes of war vessels that ran the blockade. It discusses the Union navy’s modus operandi and attempts to address the behaviors of the opposing sailors and the how’s and why’s thereof. Detailed examples are provided for a few particular ships taken off Galveston and Mobile. Archival documents are extensively illustrated and transcribed. Some of the incidents and documents in the present book reference the Denbigh herself and the rest help explain the activities of this ship and her sisters in the runner’s trade. One important question is how and why the blockaders and the runners did their respective jobs. It was an intricate and complex game of cat and mouse. The operational behavior of both groups was largely influenced by the law of prize. The result is important both to those generally interested in the Civil War and especially to those interested in the history and nautical archaeology of blockade-runners.