Although their book focuses on the period 1830-1860, Allington and Greenhill provide a detailed description of the development of the maritime technologies used in blockade-running, including the construction of boilers, engines and paddlewheels.

Cotham's history of the conflict over Galveston during the Civil War underscores its importance as a port on the western Gulf of Mexico. Cotham uses both published and archival sources to paint a vivid and compelling picture of a blockaded Southern seaport.

This valuable reference presents a daily summary of important events during the civil war, both on land and sea.

Denis Griffiths, a former seagoing marine engineer, is a Professor of Marine Engineering at John Moores University in Liverpool. In Steam at Sea, Griffiths chronicles the development of marine steam engines of all types, from the earliest reciprocating types to the high-speed turbines of the great Atlantic liners.

Through a bizarre series of misfortunes, this two-volume, thousand-page history written in 1879 was not published for nearly a century. It is a remarkable work, particularly in the detail with which it chronicles events in Galveston during the Civil War, which at the time of writing was still a recent and vivid memory.

Hearn offers a detailed and highly readable account of David Farragut's rise to prominence during the American Civil War. Remarkably, Farragut's loyalty to the Union was considered suspect by some in the U.S. Navy during the first months of the war. Farragut overcame these and other obstacles to command the West Gulf Blockading Squadron during the critical period of the war, 1862-64, and in so doing became one of the principal architects of the final Union victory.

McPherson's comprehensive overview of the American Civil War won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1989. Although the international disputes and intrigues of blockade running necessarily make up only a small part of this work, McPherson effectively puts the practice in context of the larger conflict. The author gives special attention to the efforts of the U.S. consul at Liverpool, Thomas Dudley, whom he refers to as the "combative Quaker."

Lamson served with the U.S. Navy on the South Atlantic coast, watching the entrances to the blockade-running ports of Charleston, Savannah and Wilmington. Lamson's detailed letters provide a useful look at life on the blockade, and the experiences of one of the Navy's most promising junior officers.

Thomas Taylor's autobiography is an essential account of the blockade.

The modern classic on blockade running, Stephen Wise's Lifeline of the Confederacy is an essential work. Its extensive appendices include capsule histories of steam blockade runners and listings of blockade runners' transits in and out of individual Southern ports.