This book is the third in a series that, upon completion, will cover the history of the U.S. Coast Guard and its forerunners. The first and second books, George Washington's Coast Guard and The Coast Guard under Sail, offer complete accounts of the Coast Guard from 1790 to the end of the Civil War. This one picks up the story in 1865 and carries the history of the Revenue Cutter Service forward to 1915, when Congress united it with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to create the U.S. Coast Guard.