author
William Watson
1826–1906
A Scottish-born engineer, sailor, and memoirist, he left behind one of the more unusual firsthand accounts of the American Civil War. His writing stands out because it records the conflict through the eyes of an outsider who had settled in Louisiana before the war.
1 Audiobook
The adventures of a blockade runner : or, Trade in time of war
by William Watson
About the author
Born in Scotland around 1826, he later traveled through the Caribbean and worked as a shipbuilding engineer, civil engineer, and occasional sailing captain before moving to Louisiana about 1850. Those practical jobs gave him the worldly, observant perspective that would later shape his memoir.
When Louisiana seceded, he enlisted in the Confederate Army and served as a sergeant in the 3rd Louisiana Infantry. He is best known today for Life in the Confederate Army (1888), an autobiographical account of his wartime experiences that has remained of interest to readers of Civil War history.
After the war, he returned to Scotland, where he wrote his memoir and spent the rest of his life. He died in 1906, remembered less as a literary celebrity than as a vivid witness whose book preserved a complicated and personal view of the era.