"Mallory . . . directed the Confederate navy department with a great deal of skill and, in the Davis cabinet, was second in ability only to Judah P. Benjamin. For [his] difficult job he was better fitted than any other Southern politician, and he made policy with a laudable imagination. . . . The author has constructed a well-proportioned biography."--Mississippi Valley Historical Review
"Mallory was willing to back naval inventions, strategy, and ideas, undeterred by newness. The successes and failures of Confederate naval innovations require a precise balancing in order to determine Mallory's place in history. To a considerable extent this has been done by Father Durkin. . . . [Confederate Navy Chief also] throws much light on the larger subject of the successes and failures of Jefferson Davis." --The Journal of Southern History
