Pirates, Privateers, and Rebel Raiders of the Carolina Coast

Covering the period from the early 1700s to the end of the Civil War, Butler, history professor emeritus at North Carolina's Rockingham Community College, paints eight compelling sketches of the rogues and Confederate ship captains who operated in the state's coastal waters. Blackbeard springs to life in the book's first biography--he had retired from pirating when he was killed by a naval expedition hired by the Virginia provincial government. Following an equally interesting portrait of pirate Stede Bonney, Butler examines two War of 1812 commerce raiders. Otway Burns captained the Snap Dragon, which ranged from the Caribbean to Canada, seizing several British merchantmen and fighting a few sea battles with armed vessels. Johnston Blakeley piloted the sloop Wasp into the English Channel, panicking English businessmen and driving insurance rates upward with every ship he seized as a prize. During the Civil War, John N. Maffitt, John Taylor Wood and James I. Waddell all commanded Southern commerce raiders that operated at one time or another from Wilmington, Del. Butler vividly recounts the deeds of this group of men, chronicles their lives and ultimate fates and, in general, provides an eminently readable and accurate tale of the region's rascals. Photos and maps. (July)