Gustavus Vasa Fox of the Union Navy: A Biography. By Ari Hoogenboom. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. xvi, 387 pp. $40.00, ISBN 978-0-8081-8986-8.)

Abstract

In Gustavus Vasa Fox of the Union Navy, Ari Hoogenboom attempts to confirm what many historians have accepted as truth for years: that Fox was the intelligence behind Union naval success during the Civil War. Fox did contribute to the navy's good showing in many ways. He modernized it by championing steamdriven ironclads. He implemented a blockade of the Confederate coast and established a navy on the Mississippi River. Most importantly, Fox convinced politicians and officers that they were dependent upon each other. Officers could not win victories without ships and guns, and politicians could not meet officers' needs without victories. Nowhere is Fox's pragmatic approach more evident than when he told David Dixon Porter that if he wanted a promotion, he should “take a fort” (p. 92). As assistant secretary of the navy, Fox was responsible for commanders, ships, guns, and strategy. Hoogenboom provides an excellent discussion of naval operations, one of the clearest explanations of the Union navy's acquisition and launching of ships in print. His work also reveals the introduction of the ironclads and how Fox and others were seduced by their potential. Hoogenboom weaves the navy's role into the war so well that he pushes the armies to the periphery. This approach breaks new ground; indeed, chapters 7 through 14 should be required reading for all graduate students and upper-level undergraduates in Civil War courses.