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Washington’s Engineer: Louis Duportail and the Creation of an Army Corps

Reviewed by Capt. Charles “Herb” Gilliland, USN (Ret.) Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Lafayette! Now keep it up if you’ve heard of Louis Duportail! I thought not. This reviewer knew nothing of Duportail either before reading this book, in which Prof. Norman Desmarais presents strong evidence that such obscurity is undeserved. As the

The Battalion Artist: A Navy Seabee’s Sketchbook of War in the South Pacific, 1943–1945

Reviewed by CAPT Charles “Herb” Gilliland, USN (Ret.) For any artist—perhaps for any human being–life and art are inseparable. That was certainly the case for Natale (“Nat”) Bellantoni. This strikingly attractive book filled with fine watercolors offers his story as a young artist serving in the 78th Naval Construction Battalion in World War II. Two

Uncommon Valour: The Story of the Victoria Cross

The Crimean War Battle of Inkerman, fought November 5, 1854, took place in such foggy obscurity that it was won by the initiative of soldiers and noncoms in relatively small units, and came to be called “The Soldiers’ Battle.” But while officers could be (and were) rewarded by field promotions and knightly orders, no such

Heroes of Annapolis

The title and subtitle sum up this book nicely. Regular readers of Shipmate will be familiar with the contents, as these stories originally appeared there as separate articles. Dave Poyer will be very familiar to many as a leading writer of naval fiction, especially the Dan Lenson series of novels, now up to 18 volumes.