The Best confederate Raider!!

5fish

Captain
Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Location
Central Florida
Which of the three was the best confederate raider of the Civil War?

Alabama:


Florida:


Shenandoah:


Each one has a its own unusual story of thier own to tell us. Each play a unique part in the navel history of the Civil War.

Did any of them change the out come of the war?

 
Raiding didn't change the war's outcome. It did force many Union ships to change flags (or pay higher insurance costs).

As to the best, that reminds me of the comparison between the WW II hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser or disguised merchantmen) KMS Atlantis, KMS Penguin, KMS Kormorman. The Atlantis had the longest cruise but I'm given to believe the Penguin sank more ships. The Kormorman may claim an Australian light cruiser (HMAS Sydney) to her list of victims. Best could be quantified by the traditional method: tonnage sunk or captured. Then again, how elusive or long was her cruise? How many Union ships did she tie down? How much angst for the Union shippers and for how long?
 
Neglected History!

Maybe I should change to question to:


Which of these Confederate Raiders is your Favorite or which one has the best story tell?


I would give hints about each but where's the fun in that....


This proves how neglected Civil War naval history is!!
 
D*mn fine question. Shenandoah for me. She captured a Yankee whaling fleet and saved the whales!
 
Read History of the Confederate States Navy by Raimondo Luraghi. Best book I ever read on the Confederate Navy. ALL aspects of it.

My opinion is that none of the raiders changed the outcome of the war. The Shenandoah's main claim to fame is her late surrender in the fall of 65 and her trip up the Thames with the Confederate Naval Ensign still flying infuriating Charles Francis Adams.

One has been left out though. The Sumter should receive honorable mention at least. She was Raphael Semmes first command and if memory serves captured about 19 vessels before she was trapped and Semmes sold her off.

The Alabama was the best known and most romantic of them all, obviously when you sink close to 60 ships, you do get the attention of your adversary. I think, however, that the ongoing controversy (never resolved to my knowldege) regarding the presence or absence of Chain armor on the Kearsage taints the end of the Alabama. It is a known fact that she was tired and loaded with damp powder. Semmes was growing weary and wanted to go to England and turn the ship over to someone else.

I think he just got his dander up when the Kearsage showed up off Cherbourg. He should not have fought her. Witnesses describe how loud and sharp the Federal powder was and how dull the Confederate powder was. The Alabama had in fact been reduced to taking her powder out on the main deck in vain attempts to dry it out in direct sunlight. But it was almost two years old.

The "Chain armor" incident is also something that has interested me for decades. It is reported by Kell (Alabama's XO) and Semmes, that they were unaware of the Chain Armor hanging from the sides of the Kearsage. It was supposedly encased by a falsw wood cover.

I think Semmes knew about it but was just too darn cocky and thought he could dispatch the Kearsage the same way he dispatched the Hatteras almost two years earlier. But to this day, the controversy exists as to whether or not Semmes knew about the chain armor. Between the armor and the weak powder, he didn't stand a chance.

Finally, at the museum in Annapolis Md. There is a piece of the stern post of the Kearsage. In it is lodged a 100 lb shell fired from the Alabama. Talk about fate!! If the powder had been new and fresh. the outcome of the battle should have been completely different. But you'all know what they say about "ifs"?

Memphis.
 
Whales!

You know I should have just made this a poll question. I bet I would have gotten a better response to it....

I think the Shenandoah sank the whaling fleet of Alaska, instead of capturing it and I bet the whales were big supporters the Confederacy.

I know them whales are big "Lost Cause" believers...
 
Good recommendation on the Raimondo Luraghi history of the Confederate Navy, and what there was to speak of concerning its existence.
The British Foreign Office was quick to grasp, being a naval power of course, the total inability of the Confederacy, to defend for long, the inland waterways along the Mississippi River. By mid-1862, both New Orleans and Memphis had fallen.

..."it would hardly be possible to imagine a great maritime country more destitute of the means for carrying on a naval war than the Confederate States in 1861."
James Russell Soley

p53. A History of the Confederate Navy. Raimondo Luraghi. Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, Maryland. 1996.
 
One of those boats should have been named the N.B. Forrest. Then, this question wouldn't be necessary?
 
Nathan Bedford was a nobody during the war -- known only to the Yanks garrisoning blockhouses and fighting naked.

He became the hero he is after the war. No boats named for him. Alas.

ole
 
The yanks at the blockhouses knew the sound of D.C. Kelly and John Morton; but that's another story.
 
He became the hero he is after the war. No boats named for him. Alas.
I beg to differ with you General. Not only was Gen. N.B. Forrest a great raider, but he had his own fresh water naval fleet on the Tennessee River in the fall of 1864. As I recall, during the attack on the Yankee supply base at Johnsonville, Tennessee, the CSS N.B. Forrest reeked havoc on Union gunboats, steamboats, barges, warehouses and land batteries and caused more than $6 million dollars worth of damage. Gen. Sherman had to send part of his army back to Nashville to protect his supply lines, and he made specific mention of "That Devil Forrest!" in the Official Record.

It is just plain wrong to suggest that Gen. N.B. Forrest was not recognized as a hero during the war. Just plain wrong.
 
Ship Names!

just a thought off the top of my head, I do not think there has ever been a U.S. Navel war ship named after a Confederate figure from the civil war.

I think there was a submarine name the Robert E. Lee, but technically subs are consider boats....

I could be wrong and someone will let know it too....
 
Let It Stay!

I reckon I don't know nothing about 'em.

Sorry if my post about the CSS N.B. Forrest was out of line. I'll delete it if you want me too.

Oh NO!!!!!


I like your post for I learn something and the post that follow made me think about if there was ever a U.S, Navel ship named after a confederate figure from the civil war.

I can not think of one ship ever named after a Confederate but I believe there must be at least one U.S. navel ship named for a confederate figure. It has been 140plus years since the war but maybe the U.S. Navy still carrying a grudge..

Your post was not out of line.....So leave it!!
 
I found these. There must be a comprehensive list out there somewhere.

USS Semmes (DDG-18)
USS Semmes (DD-189)
USS Tattnall (DDG-19)
USS Tattnall (DD-125)
USS Buchanan (DDG-14)
USS Buchanan (DD-131)
USS Buchanan (DD-484)
USS Maury (AGS-16)
USS Maury (DD-401)
USS Maury (DD-100)
USS Commodore Maury (SP-656)

also Liberty Ships:
SS A.P. Hill
SS Jubal A. Early
SS Judah P. Benjamin
SS Richard Ewell
SS LEONIDAS POLK
SS JEB STUART
SS JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE
SS JEFFERSON DAVIS
SS JOHN B.GORDON
SS JOSIAH TATTNALL ... and many more of these
 
Thanks

I found these. There must be a comprehensive list out there somewhere.

USS Semmes (DDG-18)
USS Semmes (DD-189)
USS Tattnall (DDG-19)
USS Tattnall (DD-125)
USS Buchanan (DDG-14)
USS Buchanan (DD-131)
USS Buchanan (DD-484)
USS Maury (AGS-16)
USS Maury (DD-401)
USS Maury (DD-100)
USS Commodore Maury (SP-656)

also Liberty Ships:
SS A.P. Hill
SS Jubal A. Early
SS Judah P. Benjamin
SS Richard Ewell
SS LEONIDAS POLK
SS JEB STUART
SS JOHN C. BRECKENRIDGE
SS JEFFERSON DAVIS
SS JOHN B.GORDON
SS JOSIAH TATTNALL ... and many more of these

I forgot to say thank you for finding ships named after confederate figures of the civil war.

I think the may have been some confederate sympathisers on the liberty ship naming committee.


Thanks again,
 
Back
Top