During the
Mexican–American War, he commanded the in the
Gulf of Mexico. In December 1846, a squall hit the ship while under full sail in pursuit of a vessel off
Veracruz.
Somers capsized and was lost along with 37 sailors. Semmes then served as first lieutenant on the , accompanied the landing force at Veracruz, and was dispatched inland to catch up with Army forces proceeding to
Mexico City. Following the war, Semmes went on extended leave at
Mobile, Alabama, where he practiced law and wrote
Service Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War. He became extremely popular, and the nearby town of
Semmes, Alabama, was named after him. He also maintained a home in
Josephine, Alabama, on
Perdido Bay. He was promoted to commander in 1855 and was assigned to lighthouse duties until 1860. After
Alabama seceded from the
Union, Semmes was offered a Confederate naval appointment by the provisional government; he resigned from the U.S. Navy the next day, February 15, 1861.
Confederate service After appointment to the Confederate Navy as a commander and a futile assignment to purchase arms in the North, Semmes was sent to
New Orleans to convert the steamer
Habana into the cruiser/commerce raider . In June 1861, Semmes, in
Sumter, outran , breaching the Union blockade of New Orleans, and then launched a brilliant career as one of the greatest commerce raider captains in naval history. Semmes' command of
Sumter lasted only six months, but during that time he ranged wide, raiding US commercial shipping in both the
Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean; his actions accounted for the loss of 18 merchant vessels, while always eluding pursuit by Union warships. By January 1862,
Sumter required a major overhaul. Semmes' crew surveyed the vessel while in neutral
Gibraltar and determined that the repairs to her boilers were too extensive to be completed there. Semmes paid off the crew and laid up the vessel. US Navy vessels maintained a vigil outside the harbor until she was disarmed and sold at auction in December 1862, eventually being renamed and converted to a blockade runner. Semmes and several of his officers traveled to England, where he was promoted to captain. He then was ordered to the
Azores to take up command and oversee the coaling and outfitting with cannon of the newly built British steamer
Enrica as a sloop-of-war, which thereafter became the Confederate commerce raider . Semmes sailed on
Alabama from August 1862 to June 1864. His operations carried him from the Atlantic to the
Gulf of Mexico, around Africa's
Cape of Good Hope, and into the Pacific to the
East Indies. During this cruise,
Alabama captured 65 US merchantmen and quickly destroyed , off
Galveston.
Alabama finally sailed back to the Atlantic and made port in
Cherbourg, France, for a much-needed overhaul; she was soon blockaded by the pursuing Union steam sloop-of-war . Captain Semmes took
Alabama out on June 19, 1864, and met the similar
Kearsarge in one of the most famous naval engagements of the Civil War. The commander of
Kearsarge had, while in port at the Azores the year before, turned his warship into a makeshift partial ironclad; of the ship's port and starboard midsection were stepped-up-and-down to the
waterline with overlapping rows of heavy chain armor, hidden behind black-painted wooden deal board covers.
Alabamas much-too-rapid gunnery and misplaced aim, combined with the deteriorated state of her gunpowder and shell fuses, enabled a victory for both of
Kearsarges
Dahlgren smoothbore cannon. While
Alabama opened fire at long range,
Kearsarge steamed straight at her, exposing the Union sloop-of-war to potentially devastating raking fire. In their haste, however,
Alabamas gunners fired many shells too high. At ,
Kearsarge turned broadside to engage and opened fire. Soon the heavy Dahlgren cannon began to find their mark. by the British yacht
Deerhound and three French pilot boats. He and his men were taken to England where all but one recovered; while there they were hailed as naval heroes, despite the loss of
Alabama. From England, Semmes made his way back to America via Cuba and from there a safe shore landing in Matamoros, Mexico. It took his small party many weeks of journeying through the war-devastated South before he was finally able to make his way to the Confederate capital. He was promoted to
rear admiral in February 1865, and during the last months of the war he commanded the boxed-in
James River Squadron from his flagship, the heavily armored ironclad . With the fall of
Richmond, in April 1865, Semmes supervised the destruction of all the squadron's nearby warships and thereafter acted as a
brigadier general in the
Confederate States Army, the implication being that he was appointed to that grade. Historians John and David Eicher show Semmes as appointed to the grade of temporary brigadier general (unconfirmed) on April 5, 1865. Semmes' appointment as a brigadier general was at most an informal arrangement made four days before General
Robert E. Lee's surrender of the
Army of Northern Virginia at the
Battle of Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. That appointment was not and could not have been submitted to or confirmed by the Confederate Senate, since the
Second Confederate Congress adjourned for the last time on March 18, 1865. A few men of the Naval Brigade were able to join with Lee's rear guard and fought at the
Battle of Sailor's Creek. Semmes and the Naval Brigade were surrendered to Union Major General
William T. Sherman with Johnston's army at
Bennett Place near
Durham Station, North Carolina; he was subsequently paroled on May 1, 1865.
After the war at 804 Government Street in
Mobile, Alabama, occupied by him 1871–1877, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The U.S. briefly held Semmes as a prisoner after the war, but released him again on a second parole, then later rearrested him for
treason on December 15, 1865. After a good deal of behind-the-scenes legal and political machinations, all charges were eventually dropped, and he was released on April 7, 1866. In October 1866, the Louisiana State Seminary (today's
Louisiana State University) offered Semmes a position as Professor of Moral Philosophy and English Literature. The position paid $3,000 per year. Semmes assumed this role on January 1, 1867. His fellow faculty-members described him as "dignified and easy to talk with". His teaching consisted mainly of formal lectures, with very little open discussion or questions. After only five months on campus, Semmes resigned from academia to take over as editor of the
Memphis Bulletin newspaper in
Memphis, Tennessee. He defended his actions of warfare at sea and the political actions of the seceded southern states in his 1869
Memoirs of Service Afloat During The War Between the States. The book was viewed by some, including ''
Putnam's Magazine'', as one of the most cogent but bitter defenses of the South's "
Lost Cause". Semmes is credited with helping to popularize the term “
War Between the States". In 1871, the citizens of Mobile presented Semmes with the
Raphael Semmes House, an 1858 brick townhouse at 804 Government Street. He lived there until he died in 1877, from complications that followed food poisoning from eating some contaminated shrimp. Semmes was interred in Mobile's
Old Catholic Cemetery. == Legacy ==