Raphael Semmes

author

Raphael Semmes

1809–1877

Best remembered as the commander of the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama, he led one of the Civil War’s most famous naval campaigns. His life moved from the U.S. Navy to the Confederacy, and later into law, writing, and public life in Alabama.

2 Audiobooks

Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States

Memoirs of Service Afloat, During the War Between the States

by Raphael Semmes

The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter

The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter

by Raphael Semmes

About the author

Born in Maryland in 1809, he entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in the 1820s and built a long naval career before resigning in 1860 as the nation split. During the Civil War, he became one of the Confederacy’s best-known naval officers, first commanding the raider CSS Sumter and then CSS Alabama.

His cruise in Alabama made him internationally famous: the ship captured or destroyed dozens of Union merchant vessels before being sunk by USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg, France, in 1864. Late in the war he was promoted to admiral in the Confederate Navy and also briefly served as a brigadier general.

After the war, he settled in Alabama, worked as a lawyer and writer, and published memoirs that helped shape his public image for later generations. He died in 1877, leaving behind a career tied closely to the drama and controversy of Civil War naval history.