![]() He enjoyed Point Clear on Mobile Bay as often as he could, spending long summers there. When the fall of Richmond, Virginia, forced the destruction of his ships, he was made a Brigadier General and led his sailors as an infantry force.īriefly imprisoned after the conflict, he worked as a teacher and newspaper editor until returning to Mobile, where he pursued a legal career. He was elected to a judgeship, though he was disqualified underĬongressional Reconstruction’s early version of the de-Baathification policy we used much later in Iraq. Semmes was promoted to Rear Admiral in February 1865 and commanded the James River Squadron during the last months of the Civil War. Rescued by the British yacht Dearhound, he went to England, recovered and made his way back to the Confederacy. ![]() ![]() On 19 June 1864, Semmes took her to sea to fight the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and was wounded when she was sunk in action. At the end of her long cruise, Alabama was blockaded at Cherbourg, France, while seeking repairs. ![]() From August 1862 until June 1864, Semmes took his ship through the Atlantic, into the Gulf of Mexico, around the Cape of Good Hope and into the East Indies, capturing some sixty merchantmen and sinking one Federal warship, USS Hatteras. ![]() With his ship badly in need of overhaul, he brought her to Gibraltar in January 1862 and laid her up when the arrival of Federal cruisers made a return to sea impossible.Īfter taking himself and many of his officers to England, Semmes was promoted to the rank of Captain and given command of the newly-built cruiser CSS Alabama. During Sumter's six months' operations in the West Indies and the Atlantic, he captured eighteen merchant vessels and skillfully eluded pursuing Union warships. He ran her through the Federal blockade in June 1861 and began a career of commerce raiding that is without equal in American naval history. Appointed a Commander in the Confederate Navy in April 1861, Raphael Semmes was sent to New Orleans to convert a steamer into the cruiser CSS Sumter. ![]()
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