author
Raphael Semmes
1809–1877
Remembered for commanding the Confederate cruiser CSS Alabama, he became one of the Civil War’s most famous and controversial naval figures. His long career at sea, and the memoirs he wrote afterward, helped fix his name in American naval history.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Charles County, Maryland, in 1809, Raphael Semmes entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1826. Before the Civil War, he served for decades as a naval officer, studied law, and wrote about naval and international affairs.
When the Civil War began, he left the U.S. Navy and joined the Confederacy. He first commanded the commerce raider CSS Sumter and later the CSS Alabama, the ship most closely linked with his reputation. Under his command, the Alabama captured or destroyed dozens of Union merchant vessels, disrupting Northern shipping and making Semmes widely known on both sides of the Atlantic.
After the Alabama was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France, in 1864, Semmes survived and continued in Confederate service during the final year of the war. He later settled in Mobile, Alabama, practiced law, taught, and published memoirs about his wartime experiences before his death in 1877. Because he served the Confederacy, he remains a significant but deeply contested historical figure.