Born and bred a Tar Heel, Wade G. Dudley holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Alabama, and an M.A. in maritime history and nautical archaeology from East Carolina University. He teaches North Carolina History, among other courses, at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He is the author of the award-winning Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812-1815 (Naval Institute Press, 2003) and Drake: For God, Queen, and Plunder (Potomac Books, 2003), as well as numerous articles, book chapters, and short stories.

Dudley has written Historic Photos of Wilmington and Historic Photos of Winston-Salem, both available from Turner Publishing Company.