June 19, 1864---The ALABAMA and the KEARSARGE

JUNE 19, 1864

Unable to secure a drydock, and under pressure from the French, Captain Raphael Semmes C.S.N. is forced to take his battered but valiant “Greyhound of The Sea” C.S.S. ALABAMA out of Cherbourg Harbor. Waiting just beyond the limits of French territorial waters is the U.S.S. KEARSARGE, commanded by Semmes’ old Annapolis roommate, Captain John Winslow, U.S.N. 

What ensues is one of the three epic sea battles of the Civil War (the others involve the H.L. HUNLEY and the MONITOR and the MERRIMACK a.k.a. C.S.S. VIRGINIA).  

In an hour, ALABAMA slips beneath the waves.

It is an uneven contest. The KEARSARGE's gun crews, better drilled and with better powder and shot, sink the raider. The ALABAMA's gun crews shoot high and too frequently. Semmes' ship does get a few good shots off, but the ALABAMA's powder and fuses largely fail to work even on the true. KEARSARGE takes one 100 pound shell in her sternpost that could have sunk her if it had detonated, but that never happens. 

 

Switching to solid shot, Semmes discovered that KEARSARGE had been modified by having a layer of chain mail draped down her sides. Hidden by planking, it was not visible to the eye.  Surprisingly, because Semmes had been an officer of the U.S. Navy at one time, he was, and remained bitter toward the Service. He later had little respect for the "pack of dogs" that made up the United States Navy, and he considered his old friend Winslow's "treachery" in ironcladding the KEARSARGE to be "unfair," stating that had he known the KEARSARGE had been so modified he would not have sacrificed his men's lives. Of the crew of about 135, 120 survived, including Semmes, who was rescued by a British ship that spirited him away to England.

 

Semmes returned to the Confederacy via blockade runner and was promoted to Admiral in February 1865 and General in April, the only man in North American history to hold both ranks. He was among the last ranking Confederates to surrender. After a brief imprisonment, he resumed his legal career. He became a vocal and literary exponent of "The Lost Cause" and was lionized by Southerners.

Semmes was deserving of the honors, even in the eyes of most Unionists. An unfailing officer and a gentleman, he never “impressed” or forced a man to join his crew, he made certain that black crew members were paid wages, he never enslaved a black crewman or prisoner, and he never resorted to flogging, tricing, irons, or any of the other vicious punishments that were common in the world’s navies at the time. Yankee skippers whose ships he captured (and most often burned) remembered him as a soft-spoken Ship’s Master who was considerate of them, shared his table with them, ensured their merchant crews were well fed, and was always proper and polite to their wives and daughters.  

Semmes ran a tight and worthy ship. During a career that stretched from August 1862 to July 1864, ALABAMA took and burned 65 prizes including the warship U.S.S. HATTERAS, and recommissioned a progeny, C.S.S. TUSCALOOSA that worked with her to take one more.  For comparison, C.S.S. FLORIDA took 37 and recommissioned two progeny that took 23 more, and C.S.S. SHENANDOAH took 38. Although historian William Marvel points to numerous factors that caused the decline of the U.S. Merchant Marine in the late 19th Century, he does not deny that the damage done to U.S. interests was severe. Just these three top raiders and their progeny put a total of 164 Union merchantmen out of action. Too, there were other raiders that took fewer prizes. During the second half of the Civil War, many Union ships were sold and sailed under foreign flags of convenience for safety's sake.

It is no coincidence that the commerce raiders were denied the general amnesty offered to most other Confederates. The Bulloch brothers remained in England. The ALABAMA's crew was largely exempt from this fate, as Raphael Semmes (holding twin commissions as a C.S.N. Admiral and C.S.A. General at war's end) arranged for his ALABAMA shipmates to be counted as "Naval Infantry" for purposes of the amnesty.

Although the loss of the ALABAMA makes no real difference in the war, the sinking of the well-nigh legendary “Greyhound of the Sea” causes Confederates to despair.

In 1984, the French located the wreck off Cherbourg, and since 2002 maritime archaeologists have been conserving salvage from this famous ship. 

Several songs have been written about the ALABAMA and about its battle with the KEARSARGE. One of the most famous is "Roll, ALABAMA, Roll," which is from where the Crimson Tide takes its motto, "Roll Tide!"  

"Roll, ALABAMA, Roll"  

The C.S.S. ALABAMA "March" 


Another version of "Roll, ALABAMA, Roll" 

This post is dedicated to Sherry