Semmes family.

Raphael Semmes was born 1809 Sept. 27 to Richard Thompson and Catherine Taliaferro Middleton Semmes in Charles Co., Md. His parents died when he was a boy. He was raised in Georgetown, District of Columbia, by his uncle, also named Raphael Semmes. In Norfolk, Va., 1832, he passed his naval tactics examination and he was first in his class. He studied law in Cumberland, Md., and was admitted to the bar in 1834. On 1837 May 5 he married Anne Elizabeth Spencer and in that same year he was commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

In 1841 he was sent to the Pensacola Navy Yard in Fla. In 1842, while still working in Fla., he moved his family to a house on the west bank of the Perdido River in Ala. After commanding several ships, he was given command of the brig Somers in 1846. The brig capsized in a squall while blockading Vera Cruz during the Mexican War. He was acquitted by a Court of Inquiry.

In 1849 his family moved to Mobile, Ala., and in 1855 he was made a commander and then an official lighthouse inspector. He was stationed in Washington, D.C. as secretary of the lighthouse board in 1858. On 1861 Feb. 15, he resigned from the U.S. Navy after Ala. seceded from the Union.

When the Civil War began, he was given command of the mail steamer, the Habana. He refitted the steamer, and made it into a man-of-war. He named it the C.S.S. Sumter. It became the first Confederate raider. He captured eighteen ships and burned seven before he had to sell the Sumter which was blocked by the U.S. in Gibraltar.

He was promoted to captain and ordered to take command of the English built Confederate steamer, Alabama in 1862. He captured and destroyed sixty-two American merchant ships before the Alabama was sunk by the U.S. steamer, Kearsage in the English Channel during a fierce battle on 1864 June 19. After being rescued, he sailed to Richmond, Va. He arrived 1865 Jan. 16.

In 1865 Feb. he was commissioned a rear-admiral and given command of the Confederate fleet on the James River. When Richmond was evacuated, he destroyed his fleet and led his naval brigade, which was assigned to General J.E. Johnston's army, to Danville, Va., and accepted General Sherman's terms of surrender.

On 1865 Dec. 15, he was arrested in Mobile and taken to the marine barracks in Washington, D.C. He was held four months without a trial and on 1866 Apr. 7 he was released by the third amnesty proclamation of President Johnson.

In 1866 he was elected probate judge of the court of Mobile but he was not permitted to hold the office. He returned to his law career. He taught for a short period at the Louisiana State Seminary and Military Academy before leaving for Tenn. to edit the Memphis Bulletin. In his last years he lectured and returned to his law practice.

He was an author whose works included: Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War (1851); Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of Mexico (1852); The Cruise of the Alabama (1864); Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War Between the States (1869).

He and his wife had six children: Samuel Spencer (1838-1912), who first married his distant cousin Pauline Semmes and then married Frances Harding Morris; Oliver John (1839-1918), who married Mrs. Amante Hamlin; Electra Louise (1843-1925), who married Pendleton Colston; Catherine Middleton (1845-1937), who married Lake Edward Wright, governor of the Philippine Islands and secretary of war under President Theodore Roosevelt; Anne Elizabeth (1847-1935), who married Charles Bailey Bryan; and Raphael (b.1849), who married Marion Adams. Semmes, a Catholic, died on 1877 Aug. 30 in Mobile, Ala.

Anne (Anne Elizabeth Spencer) Semmes was born 1819 June 2 to Oliver Marlborough and Electra (Oliver) Spencer in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the only daughter of twelve children. She was educated by Mrs. Tevis of Shelbyville, Ky. and at the boarding school of Mesdames Segoyne and Saracene in Philadephia. During her later years, in Ala., she served as president of the Ladies Memorial Association of Mobile and she was twice the president on the board of managers of the Catholic Orphan Asylums. On 1892 Mar. 7 she died.

Oliver (Oliver John) Semmes was born on 1839 Aug. 29 to Raphael Semmes and Anne (Anne Elizabeth Spencer) Semmes in Norfolk, Va. He was an Episcopalian and a Democrat. He was educated near Mobile at Spring Hill College. From 1858 July to 1861 Jan. he was a Cadet at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.

In 1861 Jan. he returned to Mobile to fight for the Confederacy. He was appointed second lieutenant and in 1861 Apr. he was given command of an artillery company in the Confederate army. This company, which became known as Semmes' battery, was stationed at New Orleans until 1862 Aug. He was then stationed at Port Hudson. He was placed in command of the Confederate gunboat Diana until he was forced to burn his boat and surrender. While a prisoner of war, he escaped with ninety-one other officers. He was promoted to major.

After the war, he studied law in Mobile and he was admitted to the bar in 1866. In 1870 he served in the Ala. legislature. In 1874 he was elected judge of the city court in Mobile and served for forty-four years. In that same year he married Mrs. Amante Hamlin (1849-1889), daughter of Edmund Pendleton Gaines and Mary J. Lindsey Gaines. He and his wife had three children. He died 1918 Jan. in Mobile, Ala.

Electra (Semmes) Colston was born on 1843 Jan. 29 to Raphael and Anne Elizabeth Spencer Semmes. On 1864 Feb. 17 she married Pendleton Colston. She worked for forty-two years in the Mobile public school system where she served as principal for many years at Girls High School. She was president of the Mobile Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy which, in 1911, changed its name to the Electra Semmes Colston Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy. She and her husband had two children. She died on 1925 June 3.

Pendleton Colston, a lawyer, was born ca.1833 at Martinsburg, Va. to Josiah Colston of Md. and Eliza Pendleton Tutt Colston of Va. He married Electra Semmes Colston on 1864 Feb. 17. He died on 1867 Dec. 8 near Mobile, Ala. of consumption.

From the description of Papers, 1859-1913. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122392322