The Militia of the Seas: A Guide to the Confederate Privateers of the American Civil War, 1861-1865
Valerie S. Buford
Thesis, August 2000
Chair: Hamilton
Nautical Archaeology Program
This thesis presents a survey of the Confederate privateers, providing descriptions of the vessels and their careers.
Primary sources supply the foundation of this thesis, which is intended to aid archaeologists and historians in
their research. In addition to biographies of each privateer, the study includes transcriptions of the original
documents from which many of the statistics are obtained. Discussions of the history of privateering and the navies
in the Civil War establish the context in which the Confederate privateers operated. Furthermore, the relevance
of steam technology in the performance of privateers is considered. The vessels that appear to be promising avenues
for future archaeological and historical research are discussed.