SEMMES
SEMPLE
1853; was promoted master, Aug. 11, 1855, and
lieutenant, Sept. 15, 1855; was attached to the
MassacJiiisetts of the Pacific squadron, 1855-57,
and in November, 1856, commanded a force of
saliors and marines in a successful attack upon
an encampment of Alaskan Indians in Puget
Sound. He served on the Poif/ia^ax, East India
squadron, 1859-60: and the Rhode Island, Atlan-
tic coast blockade, 1861; commanded the Wam-
sutta, South Atlantic blockading squadron, 1862-
63, and engaged Confederate forts and batteries
on the coasts of Georgia and Florida, besides
capturing several blockade runners. He com-
manded the Tahonia, East Gulf blockading
squadron, 1863-64, attacking the Confederate
batteries of Tampa. Fla., in April and October,
1863, and later destroying an English blockade-
running steamer and the warehouse containing
her cargo at Bayport, Fla. As commander of
the monitor Lehigh, South Atlantic blockading
squadron, 1864-65, he took part in the bombard-
ment of Fort Pringle, July 7-10, 1864, and in the
various attacks on the forts and Charleston
harbor, 1864-65. He engaged the Hewlett house
batteries on James river, 1865, and was present
at the evacuation of Richmond. He was pro-
moted commander, July 25, 1866; served on
ordnance duty in Piiiladelphia, 1866-68; com-
manded the Portsmouth, South Atlantic squadron,
1869-71; the navy yard at Pensacola, Fla., 1872-
74, and was promoted captain, Aug. 24, 1873.
He commanded the Alaska on the European
station, 1875-76; was president of the naval board
of inspection in 1880; commanded the navy yard
at Washington, D.C., 1881-85, and was promoted
commodore, March 10, 1882. He died in Hamil-
ton, Va., Sept. 22, 1885.
SEMMES, Raphael, naval officer, was born in Cliarles county, Md., Sept. 27, 1809. He was warranted midshipman in the U.S. navy in 1826; engaged in preparatory study, 1826-32; made his first cruise, 1832-34, and was admitted to the bar in 1834. In 1837»he was promoted lieutenant, and upon the outbreak of the war with Mexico he was promoted flag-lieutenant under Commodore Conner of the Gulf squadron, and commanded a shore battery at the siege of Vera Cruz. He com- manded the U.S. brig Somers, of the Mexican blockading squadron, and during a severe gale the brig foundered, with great loss of life. He was lighthouse inspector on the gulf; was pro- moted commander in 1855. and was secretary of the lighthouse board at Washington, 1858-61. He resigned his commission. Feb. 15, 1861, and joined the Confederate service, being appointed by President Davis to secure skilled mechanics for the manufacture of ordnance for the Confed- erate army. He made a tour of New York, Con- necticut and Massachusetts, examining the work-
shops, hiring men, collecting military stores and
shipping great quantities of powder to the south.
He was commissioned commander in the Con-
federate States navy, and had charge of the
lighthouse bureau. He fitted out the steamer
Sumter at New Orleans, the first vessel of the
Confederate navy; captured eighteen U.S. mer-
chantmen and was finallj' blockaded at the port
of Gibraltar by the U.S. vessels Tuscarora and
Kearsarge. He thereupon sold the Sumter and
went to England. He was promoted captain, and
in August, 1862, completed and assumed com-
mand of the new steamer Alabama at the Azores,
and while at sea captured over sixty U.S. mer-
chantmen. On Jan. 8, 1863, he sunk the U.S.
steamer Hatteras after a fifteen-minute fight off
Mobile. On June 14, 1864. while waiting in the
port of Cherbourg. France, for permission to go
into dock for repairs, the U.S. steamer Kearsarge
entered the port, for the purpose of taking on
board the prisoners landed from the Alabama.
This proceeding was objected to by Captain
Semmes, on the ground that the Kearsarge was
adding to her crew in a neutral port. The French
authorities conceded this objection, and the
Kearsarge did not anchor. On June 19, 1864, the
Alabavia attacked the Kearsarge off Cherbourg,
and after a fight of one hour the Alabama struck
her colors, and sunk forty minutes later. In
1864 Captain Semmes was promoted rear-admiral,
and was ordered to guard the water approaches
to Richmond. He surrendered with General
Johnston's army at Durliam, N.C., May 1, 1865,
and returned to Mobile, where he oiiened a law-
office. He was arrested by order of Secretary
Welles, and was confined until the third of the
President's amnesty proclamations released him.
He was elected judge of the probate court of
Mobile county, but was forbidden by President
Johnson to take the bench. He edited a daily
newspaper in Mobile: was professor in the
Louisiana Military institute, and later resumed
his law practice. He is the author of; Service
Afloat and Ashore during the Mexican War (1851);
Tlie Campaign of General Scott in the Valley of
Mexico (1852); The Cruise of the Alabama and
Sumter and Memoirs of Service Afloat during the
War u-ith the States (1869) . He died in Mobile,
Ala.. Aug..30, 1877.
SEMPLE, James, senator, was born in Green county, Ky., Jan. 5, 1798. He was graduated at the law school in Louisville, Ky., and began prac- tice in Clinton county, removing to Edwardsville, 111., in 1827, where he continued to practise. He was a representative in the Illinois legislature, 1828-33; was speaker four years: brigadier-general of militia during the Black Hawk war, and was attorney-general of Illinois, 1833. He was charge d'affaires at New Granada with headquarters at
