When the Southern Lights Went Dark: The Lighthouse Establishment during the Civil War will be published by Globe Pequot Press on May 1, 2020. This book tells the story of how the Lighthouse Board, the lighthouse engineers and inspectors, and the keepers of lighthouses and light vessels restored the lights in the south during the Civil War. The Confederacy not only extinguished the lights it controlled, it removed the lenses and lamps and sent them inland to be hidden.
When the Federal Navy took and secured a port on the coast of the Confederacy, the aids to navigation could be restored. The first problem was finding the personnel to do this when nearly all able-bodied men were occupied fightng the war. The next problem was finding the illuminating apparatus to relight the lights.
In the Notice to Mariners above, the “lawless persons” were Confederates.
When the Southern Lights Went Dark can be ordered at <customercare@nbnbooks.com> or by phone at 800/338-4550.
To read the first chapter click here
Mary Louise Clifford 