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CSS Alabama, a 1050-ton screw steam sloop of war, was built at Birkenhead, England, for the Confederate Navy. After leaving England in the guise of a merchant ship, she rendezvoused at sea with supply ships, was outfitted as a combatant and placed in commission on 24 August 1862. Commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama cruised in the North Atlantic and West Indies during the rest of 1862, capturing over two-dozen Union merchant ships, of which all but a few were burned. Among those released was the mail steamer Ariel, taken off Cuba on 7 December with hundreds of passengers on board.
Alabama began the new year by sinking USS Hatteras near Galveston, Texas, on 11 January 1863. She then moved into the South Atlantic, stopped at Cape Town in August, and went on to the East Indies, seizing nearly 40 more merchantmen during the year, destroying the majority and doing immense damage to the seaborne trade of the United States.
The Confederate cruiser called at Singapore in December 1863, but soon was back at sea to continue her commerce raiding. However, Alabama was increasingly in need of an overhaul and only captured a few ships in 1864. On 11 June of that year, Captain Semmes brought her to Cherbourg, France, for repairs. The Union steam sloop Kearsarge soon arrived off the port, and, on 19 June the Alabama steamed out to do battle. In an hour of intense combat, she was reduced to a sinking wreck by the Kearsarge's guns. As Alabama disappeared beneath the surface, her surviving crewmen were rescued by the victorious Federal warship and by the English yacht Deerhound. Her wreck was located by the French Navy in the 1980s.
For more information on CSS Alabama and the status
of her wreck, see:
This page features a special selection of views relating to the Confederate Navy cruiser Alabama and provides links to broader pictorial coverage on her.
For additional views of, or relating to, CSS Alabama,
see:
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
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Photo #: NH 85593-KN (Color) CSS Alabama (1862-1864) Painting by Rear Admiral J.W. Schmidt, USN (Retired), 1961, depicting the Alabama in chase of a merchant ship. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC. Donation of RAdm. J.W. Schmidt. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 595 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 58738 "The Pirate 'Alabama,' Alias '290,' Certified to be correct by Captain Hagar of the 'Brilliant'" Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862, depicting CSS Alabama burning a prize. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 177KB; 740 x 555 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 57256 CSS Alabama (1862-1864) Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama's commanding officer, standing by his ship's 110-pounder rifled gun during her visit to Capetown in August 1863. His executive officer, First Lieutenant John M. Kell, is in the background, standing by the ship's wheel. The original photograph is lightly color-tinted and mounted on a carte de visite bearing, on its reverse, the mark of E. Burmester, of Cape Town. See photo numbers NH 57256-KN for the colored image and NH 57256-A for a reproduction of the carte de visite's reverse. Collection of Rear Admiral Ammen C. Farenholt, USN(MC), 1931. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 520 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 58739 CSS Alabama (1862-1864) Line engraving published in "The Soldier in Our Civil War", volume I, page 399, depicting the Confederate cruiser decoying ships toward herself by burning a prize vessel. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 141KB; 740 x 485 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 59351 "The Approach of the British Pirate 'Alabama'." Line engraving after a drawing by Homer, published in "Harper's Weekly", Volume VII, January-June 1863, page 268, depicting an anxious scene aboard a merchant ship as the Confederate cruiser Alabama comes up. This may represent the capture of the California mail steamer Ariel off Cuba on 7 December 1862, as there were many ladies among the prize ship's passengers. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 138KB; 485 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 53690 USS Hatteras (1861-1863) (right) 19th Century print, depicting the sinking of Hatteras by CSS Alabama, off Galveston, Texas, 11 January 1863. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 174KB; 740 x 610 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 59354 USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama, 19 June 1864 Contemporary line engraving, depicting an early stage in the battle. Alabama is on the right, with Kearsarge in the left distance. Courtesy of F.S. Hicks. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 144KB; 740 x 585 pixels |
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Photo #: K-29827 (Color) USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama, 19 June 1864 Painting by Xanthus Smith, 1922, depicting Alabama sinking, at left, after her fight with the Kearsarge (seen at right). Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 500 pixels Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system. |
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For additional views of, or relating to, CSS Alabama,
see:
| If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.Page made 12 July 2000
Text corrected 4 August 2006