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Page Ten—Courier News/Mail Call Progress Section, June 1986dmiralBy DELIA PARTLOW CN Staff WriterAdmiral Raphael Semmes, one of few Confederate naval heroes, was the father of Samuel Spencer Semmes of Osceola, who was Mississippi County judge in 1882-84.S. S. Semmes, eldest son of Raphael and Anne Elizabeth Spencer Semmes, was born in Cincinnati in 1838. His family moved to Alabama in the 1840s and resided on a plantation, “Prospect Hill,” on the Florida bordernear Mobile, and where the naval officer returned after accompanying Gen. Winfield Scott to Mexico City during the Mexican War in1847.At the outbreak of the Civil War, Samuel enlisted and served the Confederacy, attaining the rank of captain.1 war’s end he moved with hisAtfamily to Osceola, where his wife, Pauline died, leaving the widower with five children. He then married Frances Morris, daughter ofK • 1• 4CimimiihiuIci r.S. V Altihttwn, Unil Villllltlit t mill ill itit« mull* \\||\a Presbyterian minister there and seven children were born during this marriage.Samuel Spencer Semmes’ descendants include Congressman Bill Alexander and his brother, Spencer Buck Alexander of Osceola, whose grandmother, Electra Elizabeth, was Semmes’ ninth chiiii; auu Biiiy Fain Shed-dan, also of Osceola, whose grandfather, Raphael, was his second child.The senior Raphael Semmes, born in Maryland, was appointed midshipman in the Navy in 1826 at the age of 17. Two years later hetook leave of absence from the service and studied and practiced law in Maryland and Ohio wherehe was married in 1837 and recalled to active duty.He served aboard the Consort, Warren and Somers and after the Mexican War returned to Mobile where he served ashore and wrote of his naval experiences.On February 16, 1861, six days after Jefferson Davis was named president of the Confederate States of America, Semmes resigned his commission and was made a commander in the Confederate Navy.In April he took command of the commerce destroyer, Sumter, and during the next seven months the ship captured 18 Federal merchant vessels. The ship was blockaded by Federal snips at Gibralter and Semmes laid up the cruiser and dismissed its crew.He was ordered to England to take command of the Alabama, a 1,070-ton cruiser being built in Birkenhead for the Confederacy.The Alabama became the “scourge of the Union” under Semmes and his crew, and during die next two years sunk or captured 66 Federal naval and merchant ships from the coasts of Europe, Africa, South America and the Orient. She captured her last prize, the clipper Tycoon, bound around the Horn to San Francisco, on April 27,1864, below the Equator.The cruiser, in Semmes words was now “like the wearied fox hound, limping back after a longchase, footsore, and longing for quier and repose. Her commander, like herself, was well nigh worn down. Vigils by night andday, the storm and drenching rain, the frequent and rapid change of climate, now freezing, now melting or broiling, and the constant excitement of the chase and capture, ha laid, in the three years of war he had been afloat, a load of a dozen years upon his shoulders.’’In June, 1864, the Alabama arrived in Cherbourg Harbor after 75,000 miles of cruising the seas. When word of the ship reached Paris, the U. S. Minister successfully urged the French to evict the “rebel corsair” and notified the USS Kearsarge, a modern steam-driven man-o-war moored in Holland, of the presence of the Alabama in French waters.The Kearsarge immediately sped to Cherbourg to confront the Confederate vessel, which had sought sanctuary and replenishing to no avail. Commander Semmes, instead of trying to slip out of port decided to engage the enemy vessel and sent a challenge to theKearsarge’s captain.The Federal man-o-war steamed out of the harbor and on Sunday, June 19, in view of thousands lining the French shore and a number of craft out of battle range, the two ships engaged in a duel to the death.The fighting ships were well matched, but the Alabama was still using gunpowder put aboard in England two years ago, and her firing upon the Federal ship proved ineffective. The battle lasted just over an hour, leaving the Alabama afire and sinking.Semmes and 41 of his officers and crew were taken out of the water aboard an English yacht, Deerhound, and returned to London, avoiding capture and imprisonment which awaited the 70 men picked up by the Kearsarge.In England, where he was greeted as a hero, Semmes was given a silk Confederate flag made by an Englishwoman and presented a replacement for his sword, which went down on the Alabama, by the British Navy.Semmes made his way back to Richmond by way of Switzerland,Mexico and Mobile, avoiding capture. In Richmond, a grateful government, about to flee the city, conferred upon Semmes the rankof rear admiral. But his command was only of a small fleet of ironclad gunboats in the James River. When the city was evacuated, he ordered the boats burned and retreated with the army surrendering at Greensboro, N.C.Admiral Semmes was paroled and returned to Mobile, only to be arrested by order of the Secretary of the Navy and imprisoned in Washington for four months. He was released and later pardoned after failure to find evidence to try him for piracy.The City of Mobile presented him with a home there and he spent the remaining years until his death in 1877 in the practice of law and in writing of his career.In 1900, a statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes was unveiled at the corner of Government and Royal Streets in Mobile, showing him in uniform with one hand holding his binoculars and theother upon his sword.
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Blytheville Courier News
Blytheville, Arkansas, US
Sun, Jun 15, 1986
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Dorothy B.
PA, USA 25 Jan 2021
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