J. (John) Wilkinson

Born in 1821 and dying in 1891, John Wilkinson is chiefly remembered as the author of The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner, first published in 1877. In its preface, he described the book as his "first attempt at authorship," and the work went on to become his best-known contribution to Civil War literature.

Wilkinson wrote from lived experience. Contemporary library records identify the book as a firsthand account connected with Civil War blockades and the capture of New Orleans, while other historical references describe him as an officer in the Confederate navy and later a commander associated with blockade-running service. That background gives the memoir its distinctive tone: part naval history, part personal remembrance, and often strikingly immediate.

Today, readers usually come to Wilkinson for the same reason his book has lasted: it offers an on-the-scene view of a dramatic and dangerous corner of the war. Whatever one’s perspective on the conflict itself, his writing remains valuable as a period memoir shaped by direct involvement rather than distant retelling.