A Short History Of The United States Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from A Short History of the United States Navy This history owed its origin to the need of a work suit able in scope and treatment as a text-book for the midship men of the United States Naval Academy. Since, in a tentative form, it has been used by them with gratifying results, there is hope that it may prove of interest and value to others whose time for this subject is limited. It has been written with certain definite aims, the principal of which are the following: First, to present a record of exactly what happened, without personal, sectional, or national prejudice. Second, to regard naval events from the professional rather than the picturesque point of view; for example, to emphasize the maneuvering and gunnery in an action rather than the smoke and blood. Third, to suppress the trivial and bring o'ut the important, not neglecting the services of officers in time of peace. Fourth, to give, whenever possible, the original sources, such as letters from secretaries of the navy, and official reports of officers. These official reports, we feel, are of singular value. The fighter writes as he shoots - straight to the mark. He may be prejudiced in favor of his own flag, but his account is usually more sportsmanlike than are the corresponding accounts of his countrymen who were not there to see, and has a unique interest that no rewriting ever attains. In the following pages will be found reports by both friends and foes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.