Farragut’s Captain: Percival Drayton, 1861–1865

By Peter Barratt

Captain Percival Drayton played a central role in four of the key naval engagements of the American Civil War, and as a personal friend and trusted subordinate of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut and Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont, Drayton made a vital contribution to the ultimate success of the Union Navy in the struggle to maintain the Union. As the son of a noted Jacksonian Unionist obligated to leave South Carolina for Philadelphia many years before the war, Drayton was the very embodiment of the romantic war between brothers. Captain Drayton was a highly literate and intelligent observer of the world around him and the people in it. And throughout the war, he maintained a constant flow of letters to naval colleagues and friends. His letters provide a captivating insight into his service and into the personalities of many Civil War–era figures, and so his letters—and his biography—stand as a primary record of the war at sea and of the collapse of the slave system on the South Carolina coast.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Oct 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483487946

Peter Barratt

Peter Barratt has had a love affair with The Bahamas and its multi-faceted history since he first visited the islands in 1960.  A British-trained architect with a degree in urban and regional planning from Harvard, Barratt’s extensive knowledge of the Bahama Islands grew as the town planner formerly in charge of the development of the new city of Freeport ... the early days of which he has written about in his book, Grand Bahama.  An avid amateur archaeologist and founder of the Lucayan National Park, he has written many articles and papers about the Bahamas. A tennis player and licensed pilot, Barratt also sails and dives the amazing waters of the Bahamas as he continues to explore the waves of tide and time that have brought together so many different people from around the world to its tropical shores.