In the Autumn of 1864, at the height of the American Civil War, the Confederate raider Shenandoah received orders to "seek out and utterly destroy" the whaling fleets of New England as part of an effort to bleed the Union of its economic strength. The voyage of the raider would capture or sink thirty-eight ships, take more than a thousand prisoners, and end in a conflagration that began almost a full three months after General Lee lay down his sword.