Raphael Semmes ï 1 FREE DOWNLOAD
Biographer John M. Taylor did a fine job with this edition of Semmes' memoirs, so let me make clear that my two-star rating is aimed at Semmes, not Taylor.
Raphael Semmes was a major figure in the Confederate Navy during the Civil War, and as such his memoirs are significant. Unfortunately, they were written very soon after the war's close, and are unremittingly bitter. Shorn of his jaundiced and over-legalistic commentary on the deficiencies of the Puritan Yankees, the memoir would be about half the size and much more readable.
Frustratingly, 'Memoirs of Service Afloat' says little where the interest is greatest... Semmes literally gives more room to his letter to President Andrew Johnson protesting his postwar arrest than he does to the famous battle between the CSS Alabama and the USS Kearsarge, so we are no wiser about the Alabama's commander's point of view than we are from reading the official reports of the battle.
An important memoir of the war, but a very frustrating read. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States At over 500 pages, this is a long book, but every page was worth it. Admiral Semmes tells an outstanding story beginning with his beliefs on the founding of our country and the years of political battles leading up to Lincoln's War. He then transitions into his Federal Navy Commodore and transition into the CSA Navy and leads to when he is back home more than four years later. His story covers his travels around the globe and all that he encounters. In reading his memoir, you quickly learn that Semmes is an outstanding leader and sailor par excellence with the ethics of a Southern gentleman. As well he is supremely knowledgeable of the seas, the wind, the current, plant life and the laws of sea and of the war.
His story of being at sea for four non-stop years, fighting the battle for the South with only his own instincts is one not often heard of when studying Lincoln's War. He provides an international perspective to the fight as well as how the South fought from the sea while being blockaded. It is an excellent read. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States Now that America is Great Again, Deplorables will seek narratives like Semmes' to stock the required reading list for their home and private schools, as the first three chapters, and 50% of the remainder of the book is an unabashed vehicle to exhaustively justify slavery (a 'labor system' to Semmes) and the righteous mission of the Confederacy.
Semme's writing skill is consistent with that of an individual schooled as a lawyer, but Patrick O'Brien need not worry about being displaced as a documentarian of life aboard 19th century ships of war. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States I really enjoy this book. Not only is the story of the CSS Alabama one of the most dramatic stories in all of history, but her captain (CS Admiral Raphael Semmes) was a fairly entertaining chap in his own right. He reminds me of Herodotus with his frequent digressions on meteorology, international law, defects of the New England character, anthropology, and rather pointed assessments of the gentlemanly character or ladylike deportment of personages whose paths he crossed in the course of the cruise.
The first part of the book is a very common-sense defense of the right of secession; the rest of the book his a narrative of his service as admiral of the Confederate Navy. From the clandestine building of the Confederate raider in the shipyards of Bristol, to her cruise through the entire world's oceans, to her apocalyptic duel with the USS Kearsage in the English channel, this is pretty high adventure. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States An amazing first hand account of the Confederate Navy from the Wolf of the Deep, Semmes. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States
Published in 1869, Raphael Semmes's Memoirs of Service Afloat was the first major southern memoir issued after the Civil War, written by the most important Confederate naval figure to emerge from the conflict. It appears here in its first indexed and professionally edited version, with an introduction and notes by Semmes's biographer John M. Taylor.
According to Taylor, Semmes's impressive military performances would not be rivaled by any sea raider until the advent of the submarine. Commanding two cruisers, first the Sumter and then the famous Alabama, Semmes engineered a rout of the Federal merchant marine, burning or bonding a total of sixty-four vessels with the Alabama alone before its dramatic defeat by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg in 1864, an event that nonetheless served to enhance his reputation -- as a pirate in the North and a hero in the South.
His memoir is a rollicking account of the voyages of the Sumter and the Alabama, with digressions on his natural surroundings and sociopolitical topics. Written soon after the war, Semmes's work conveys a zeal for the Lost Cause and an unrelenting bitterness towards Yankees that ironically tend to obscure his own deeds of skill, daring, and humanitarianism. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States
An examination of Confederate Ralphael Simmes' service aboard a Confederate merchant raider during the American Civil War. During its voyage, the raider infliced severe damaage to the Union's maratine economy. A good read about the Civil War naval war. Memoirs of Service Afloat: During the War Between the States