Who knows?

Here’s an after D-Day question. Who knows that the Federal navy in the Civil War rose to a force of 569 steam vessels and over 50,000 seamen? The failure of historians to recognize the great service done by the navy shows a lack of philosophic perception without which history is but a diary of events. The Blockade was very important but a poor offset to the great land battles with 1000's of men killed and wounded. To place New Orleans, Mobile and Hampton Roads in the category of commonplace events is not to know war. Even the Comte de Paris in his “History of the Civil War,” credited the officers and sailors who for 4 years policed the Atlantic seaboard: “Their task was the more arduous on account of its extreme monotony. ... The Federal navy displayed a perseverance, a devotion, and a knowledge of its profession which reflects as much honor upon it as its more brilliant feats of arms.” May many seamen in their watery graves, also rest in peace.