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Raphael Semmes Biography

Raphael Semmes Image

SEMMES,  Raphael (1809-77). An American naval officer, born in Charles Co., Md. In 1832 he entered the United States naval service as a midshipman. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834, but remained in the navy. During the Mexican War he was the flag lieutenant under Commodore Connor of the Gulf squadron and commanded a shore battery at Vera Cruz. After the war he was made inspector of lighthouses, became commander in 1855, and in 1858 was secretary of the Lighthouse Board. He resigned from the navy on Feb. 15, 1861, and soon afterward was commissioned by President Davis of the Confederate States to secure skilled mechanics and military supplies in the North. On April 18, 1861, he was commissioned commander in the Confederate navy and soon went to New Orleans to fit out the Sumter, which escaped from the port and captured 17 prizes before she was blockaded in Tangier by two American ships in January, 1862. Semmes then sold the Sumter and in August, 1862, at the Azores, took command of the Alabama, which became the most noted of the Confederate commerce destroyers, (See ALABAMA CLAIMS.) On June 19, 1864, the Alabama engaged the United States ship Kearsarge off the coast of Cherbourg, France, and was sunk. Captain Semmes was picked up by the English yacht Deerhound, was taken to England, and soon afterward returned to the Confederate States. He was appointed rear admiral and was placed in charge of the James River squadron. When Richmond was evacuated the ships were blown up and Admiral Semmes was commissioned brigadier general and put in charge of the defenses of Danville, Va. Upon General Lee's surrender he joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, with whom he surrendered. For a while he was professor in the Louisiana Military Institute. While practicing law at Mobile, Semmes was arrested, Dec. 15, 1865, by order of Secretary Welles, on charges of treason, but was released by the third amnesty proclamation of President Johnson. He published: Service Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War (1851); Campaigns of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico (1852); Cruise of the Alabama and Sumter (1864); Memoirs of Service Afloat during the War between the States (1869). Consult Colyer Meriwether, Raphael Semmes, in "American Crisis Biographies" (Philadelphia, 1913).