The Life and Times of Captain John Low

The Life and Times of Captain John Low

An Englishman in the Confederate States Navy

by Robert Thorp

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Thorp has crafted an illuminating and long-overdue biography about the adventurous life of Captain John Low. He skilfully blends newly discovered primary resources and compelling storytelling to provide a refreshing contribution to American Civil War and British maritime history.

Walter E. Wilson
CAPT (USN), ret.
Author of “William Watson and the Rob Roy, Adventures of a Civil War Blockade Runner” , “Civil War Scoundrels and the Texas Cotton Trade; The Bulloch Belles”, “James D. Bulloch, Secret Agent and Mastermind of the Confederate Navy”

This work shines a bright new light on the life and times of Captain John Low, a British mariner and key player in the American Civil War. As a chronicle of the Captain's historically important life it dispels many misconceptions and adds significantly to our understanding of the roles played by both him and the United Kingdom in that formative conflict.

Keith Webster
Retired journalist and corporate communications manager, consultant and tutor

This authoritative and well referenced biography by Thorp provides new insight into both the life and times of Captain John Low.

W Cairns Smith OBE
Emeritus Professor
University of Aberdeen

Never before has the story of Captain John Low been told in such detail and with such remarkable clarity. In penning his excellent narrative in this fascinating new book, Thorp has corrected some anomalies in John Low’s hitherto accepted biography. Furthermore, the pages are packed from start to finish with new facts and unique insights which, when taken together, provide a body of work which offers a significant contribution to Anglo-American history.

Robert W. Joseph CBE, MUniv, BSc (Hons)
Air Commodore, Royal Air Force (Retired)

Robert Thorp’s "The Life and Times of Captain John Low" is a fine example of Emerson’s quote, “There is properly no history, only biography.” Its fast-paced account of Englishman John Low’s exploits as a Confederate States Navy officer is skillfully woven into the trans-Atlantic saga of a family rooted in Britain but whose generations branched into America’s South and beyond. Add a dash of Civil War, a pinch of blockade running and a generous serving of Florida and Alabama’s commerce raiding, and you have the ingredients for an inspiring historical adventure.

Stephen Chapin Kinnaman
Author of "A Crisis of Loyalties and Captain Bulloch"

Captain John Low (1836 -1906) earned his place in history through four years of service in the Confederate States Navy (1861-1865). He served on CSS 'Fingal', 'Florida', and 'Alabama', and commanded CSS 'Tuscaloosa' and 'Ajax'. However, it would be wrong to define the man simply by his Civil War record. His seventy-year life was full of adventures, triumphs, tragedies, and altruistic philanthropy. He led a good life and was known as a good man, respected and revered by all who knew him. This book contains a detailed account of Captain Low’s whole life from cradle to grave. Using primary source documents, not available to earlier biographers, the author delves into John Low’s life to a much greater depth than any preceding work has been able to achieve. For the first time ever, his genealogy is fully divulged, allowing previously misunderstood relationships to be challenged and corrected, and the roles of his previously unknown siblings to be fully explored. Description of his military service is based on his personal log books and the eye witness accounts of his contemporaries. Along the way, the book sheds new perspectives on the roles played by his relations, Charles Green and Andrew Low of Savannah, in facilitating purchase of CSS 'Fingal'; it unmasks the mysterious Thomas Byrne, Louisiana’s secret agent, and explains the hitherto unrecognised role of Liverpool’s Isaac, Low & Co. The captain’s post-war life, firstly as a manager of Lancashire cotton mills, and latterly as a successful Liverpool businessman, is similarly illuminated with many previously unwritten facts. Anyone with an interest in Civil War history will find a wealth of new and unique material between these covers. Those who just enjoy a good biography should also be delighted.

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1 Hero of the hurricane
Chapter 2 The road to Rixeyville
Chapter 3 A sailor on horseback
Chapter 4 Secret agents assemble
Chapter 5 The Fingal affair
Chapter 6 The Oreto / CSS Florida
Chapter 7 The 290 / Enrica / CSS Alabama
Chapter 8 CSS Tuscaloosa
Chapter 9 1864
Chapter 10 CSS Ajax
Chapter 11 The aftermath of war
Chapter 12 Golborne and Leigh
Chapter 13 Return to Liverpool
Epilogue
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Notes and sources
Notes on the illustrations
Bibliography
Index

Robert Thorp is a British subject and a graduate of Reading University. He is directly descended from William Cowley Miller, and Captain James Alexander Duguid – the former being the builder of CSS 'Florida', and the latter, Miller’s son-in-law, who delivered the CSS 'Florida' from Liverpool to Nassau in the company of Captain John Low. The author, who is now retired, and living in Scotland, has devoted decades to the study of the Confederate States Navy and to the involvement of his ancestors in the American Civil War at sea. His book, ‘Mersey Built – The Role of Merseyside in the American Civil War’, published by Vernon Press in 2017, has been well received by civil war naval historians. He has given papers on the subject of Confederate commerce raiders to The American Civil War Museum in Richmond VA, and to the prestigious McMullen Naval History Symposium at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD.

Marine. Ships. Ship Builders. Industry. Textile. Cotton. War. Civil War. American Civil War. Diplomacy. Spys. Secret Agents. Politics. Foreign-Enlistment Act. Alabama Claims. Geneva Tribunal. Young Offenders. Stockport. Liverpool. Golborne. Leigh. Savannah. Rixyville. Greenwich