The Chesapeake Command is an odd title for a book that spends at least the first half of its pages in the Pacific Northwest and most of the remainder in New Orleans and the Mississippi River basin. The protagonists -- both U.S. Navy officers serving together until the Civil War splits their loyalties -- only end up at Hampden Roads, at the mouth of the Chesapeake in Virginia, at the very end of the book. The Chesapeake Command might have been a better title for the sequel.

Be that as it may, Les Eldridge has written an interesting story about Tobias St. John, a black sailor from Antigua whose merits don't always outweigh his color in the eyes of some of his fellow Union officers, and Rory Dunbrody, a man born in North Carolina but raised in Galway, Ireland, whose loyalty to the South is primarily a matter of kinship (although his brother is serving in the Union army and his father and sister, although living and working in the South, have little love for the Confederate cause).

So, there's drama. Even more so after Dunbrody is smitten with a southern girl who's already engaged to a short-tempered Confederate army officer.

The book begins in 1859, and the chapters set around Seattle -- where Dunbrody and St. John strive to avert a new war with England over border disputes and a wayward pig -- are the most interesting. Many of the characters in the novel are real, and our heroes interact with several -- most notably Captain George E. Pickett, who would later earn fame for leading a doomed charge at Gettysburg. Neither the U.S. nor England wants a war, but there is delicate diplomacy to navigate, along with attacks from native tribesmen to weather. And, of course, there is growing concern over news of secession back east.

Then the war begins, and the two friends part ways -- both finding berths on ships on their respective sides. It's an interesting era for sailors; wooden ships with sails still exist, of course, but there is a growing number of steamships on both sides, as well as a push for ironclad vessels.

There is not a lot of combat for the main characters in this book; the portion in the Northwest is mostly diplomacy, and once the war begins there's a lot of traveling, preparations, social occasions and a duel. There are some minor engagements, however, and in one instance Dunbrody even gets to see his old pal engage in some minor heroics -- from a distance, of course. Although possibly a treasonous action, they keep in touch via letters through Dunbrody's uncle in Ireland.

Eldridge is obviously well-schooled on the era, as well as the particulars of both the U.S. and C.S. navies at the onset of the war. While my preference is certainly the Age of Sail, a half century or more back in time, the book provides an interesting glimpse into these early steps toward a more modern navy. The relationships between people who find themselves on the opposite side of the line from family and friends are keenly explored here, and it seems likely future books in the series will delve even more deeply into that fracture in our nation.

On the other hand, the novel suffers from too much dialogue and an abundance of effusive praise heaped on both Dunbrody and St. John by nearly everyone they encounter. The exceptions are inserted by Eldridge, it seems, solely to provide tension and occasional conflict but, by and large, everyone loves these guys.

It looks like Eldridge wrote a few more books in this series, and I am curious to see what happens next. I think I would enjoy more of the actual conflict in the War Between the States -- and the inevitable meetings between Dunbrody and St. John on opposite sides of the conflict -- but I don't expect I'll seek the sequels out. (So if Eldridge or his fans are reading this, you know where to find me.)