From the Navy Department Library: The Captain's Last Eleven Years.
It took Rafael Semmes several months after the loss of his ship, the CSS Alabama, to arrange for his return to the Confederacy from England. Friends and Southern sympathizers enabled him to settle his affairs regarding the Alabama and spend some time touring the continent (where he visited the famous Battle of Waterloo site).
He sailed on the steamer Tasmanian, leaving October 3, 1864, for Havana, via St. Thomas. He decided not to try to run through the blockade off the Confederate coast because of the increased effectiveness of of it. Plus, he knew the Union would have an extra special effort to capture him, whom they regarded as a pirate.
He remarked, "The very mention of my name had as yet the same such effect upon the Yankee Government as the shaking of a red flag before the blood-shot eyes of an infuriated bull."
They Wanted Him Badly. --Old B-R'er
No comments:
Post a Comment