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Biography of Raphael SemmesName: Raphael SemmesBirth Date: 1809 Death Date: 1877 Place of Birth: Charles County, Maryland, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: naval officer Raphael Semmes Raphael Semmes (1809-1877), American naval officer of the Confederacy, commanded the Sumter and Alabama in their daring raids on Northern shipping during the Civil War.Raphael Semmes was born in Charles County, Md. Appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy at 16, in 1837 he was promoted to lieutenant. During the long periods of inactivity that characterized naval service in those days, Semmes had the opportunity to study and then to practice law.During the Mexican War, Semmes commanded the brig Somers and then served with distinction in the campaign against Mexico City. He recounted these experiences in Service Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War (1851).Soon after Alabama seceded from the Union, Semmes resigned his commission and accepted an appointment as commander in the Confederate Navy. In April 1861 he was assigned to command the C.S.S. Sumter at New Orleans. The Sumter ran the Federal blockade in June and, during …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…lawyer. He also wrote his famous Memoirs of Service Afloat (1869), a vivid account of the voyages of the Sumter and the Alabama in which he took literary revenge on the enemy. In 1877 he died at his home in Mobile after a brief illness. Further Reading Semmes's Memoirs of Service Afloat, during the War between the States (1869) is available in an abridged version, The Confederate Raider Alabama, edited with an introduction by Philip Van Doren Stern (1962). Biographies of Semmes include Colyer Meriwether, Raphael Semmes (1913); Walter Adolphe Roberts, Semmes of the Alabama (1938); and Edward Carrington Boykin, Ghost Ship of the Confederacy: The Story of the Alabama and Her Captain (1957).Semmes, Raphael, Memoirs of service afloat during the War Between the States, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. Taylor, John M., Confederate raider: Raphael Semmes of the Alabama, Washington: Brassey's, 1994. Tucker, Spencer, Raphael Semmes and the Alabama, Fort Worth, TX: Ryan Place Publishers, 1996. |