USS Constellation on the Dismal Coast: Willie Leonard's Journal, 1859-1861 (Studies in Maritime History) Hardcover – November 15, 2013

The Willie Leonard Journal remains an important contribution to Naval history because he participated as a crewman aboard the US Ship Constellation, the American Navy's most successful attempt to curtail illegal slavery. However, many of the pluses that Editor C. Herbert Gilliland adds to the the Leonard journal in his analysis of it, are negated by his adherence to an ongoing campaign by the Navy to gain acceptance of the Howard I. Chapelle claim that there were two wooden sailing warships named Constellation, although he and none of his current supporters, including Editor Gilliland, offer any evidence in support of that half century old claim.

Seaman Willie Leonard's journal of his life aboard the USS Constellation while serving in the US Navy' s pre-civil war African Squadron provides the basis for a richly detailed and researched account of the now little remembered effort to intercept and bring to a halt the transportation of slaves to the United States. Wherever Leonard has used a now archiaic technical term or form of English which would tend to cloud the intended meaning of his text the author has inserted an explanation which eliminates any possible confusion.Don Baker

Haven't finished it. Got distracted by other events. Somewhat repetitious.

William A. Leonard was my husbands great grandfather. We readThe original journal. The history written in this book needs to be toShared.

This book scratched a lot of issues: illuminated my visit to the USS Constellation a few months ago, an abiding interest in slavery/abolition, and a growing interest in the age of sail.Make no mistake: there is a LOT to wade through here: 28 months of daily entries of life aboard the Constellation during its service as part of the Africa Squadron to interdict the slave trade in coastal waters.But Willie is a faithful diarist, exceedingly observant, informed, intelligent...and there is just so much of interest in these 400-plus pages of daily life aboard a ship in the last days of the Age of Fighting Sail, of diplomatic relations, of other ships in the squadron, of interesting ports of call, of nature, of dramatic events at home in terms of the secession crisis and the start of the Civil War, and - of course - the mission of interrupting the slave trade.It's made all the better by excellent editing and annotation by C. Herbert Gilliand who drew on a variety of primary and secondary sources to add very important context (and corrections) to Willie Leonard's diary...the illustrations are few but relevant (not well reproduced in the e-book however), especially a few images of the handwritten pages of the journal.It was maddening to read Gillibrand's notes on how captured/condemned slave ships were returned to America but then released and re-sold to resume the slave trade, while England had begun burning them after capture.I am definitely going to add this hard copy to my own personal libraryHighly Recommended

Invaluable in manifesting life in a navy crew aboard a sailing ship just before the Civil War. The diary is supreme at its description of the men and work of a man of war of the day, this despite Leonard’s repeated detestation for navy enlisted life: “Anything is preferable to this dog’s life of a sailor. A person of any spirit might as well be in the infernal regions as in a man of war.” The diary describes its subjects well, whether describing the Constellation’s successful race to capture a slaver—“By this time there was not a man or boy on board of us, but what was up on deck witnessing the chase, and full of excitement as to whether she was a slaver or not”—or the scenes after the settling of old scores: “It is a frequent occurrence to see a man with his nose hanging, an ear off or an eye out, coming on board a man of war after a general liberty.” Only occasionally is the Constellation successful in its anti-slavery task, but the work and life of a crew ever retain interest. Of course, it’s a diary, and there are many days in which little happens. But frequently the author will then describe one or another remarkable member of the crew, all of which makes for a strong collective portrait.

I just finished this book. What an insight into the conditions and lives of Civil-War era sailors. I wrote four novels about the period and still picked up new turns of phrase and meanings from this book, It's the diary of an ordinary seaman who shipped with the US Navy antislavery patrols (now there's a long-forgotten Navy mission) off West Africa. Leonard is a keen observer and Herb Gilliland makes him accessible with explanations and observations inserted here and there in his journal. Highly recommend!