Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/765

Rh whole Federal fleet, he was compelled to surrender. To what achievements and world-wide fame his skill and daring might have brought him, had the naval resources of the Confederacy been commensurate, is an interesting subject for conjecture. After the close of hostilities he was called by his Maryland brethren to the presidency of the State Agricultural college, but he did not survive the decade following the war, dying at his home, &quot;The Rest,&quot; in Talbot county, Maryland, May 11, 1874.

Rear-Admiral Raphael Semmes was born in Charles county, Maryland, September 27, 1809, a descendant of one of the Catholic families which came from England to the west shore of Maryland in the seventeenth century. He was appointed a midshipman in the United States navy by President John Quincy Adams in 1826, but he did not enter the active service until 1832, the intervening period being spent in naval study at Norfolk, and in the reading of law, during his furloughs, with his brother, Samuel M. Semmes, an attorney at Cumberland, Md. He was undecided at this time whether to devote him self to law and literature or to an adventurous life at sea, but after being admitted to the bar he decided to make his career in the navy. He made his first cruise in 1832, was promoted lieutenant in 1837, and in 1842 established his home in Alabama. At the beginning of the war with Mexico he was flag-lieutenant of Commodore Connor, commanding the squadron of the Gulf, and in the siege of Vera Cruz he had charge of one of the batteries on shore. Subsequently he was in command of the brigSomers, engaged in blockade duty, and was fortunately rescued when that vessel was knocked down by a gale of wind and most of her crew were drowned. After peace was restored he served for several years as in spector of lighthouses on the Gulf coast, in 1855 was promoted commander, and in 1858 was assigned to duty at Washington, as secretary of the lighthouse board. Dur-