Porter and Semmes in FINAL Poll!

Union Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter and Confederate Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes won this past week's semifinal poll asking readers, "Who Was the Greatest Civil War Naval Officer?"  While Porter was the clear winner for the Union, Semmes went through a slight struggle in the final days of the poll to win 7 votes to 5 (Matthew F. Maury). 

In an effort to gain a pulse to what readers and enthusiasts of the CWN 150 are looking for in these polls, a short "stat sheet" for each officer will be included for the final poll on the left hand side of the blog.  The poll will be left up for two weeks, with the ultimate winner decided in early March.

 David Dixon Porter (1813-1891)

 Greatest Achievements:

• Second man to be promoted to rank of Admiral, next to adoptive brother David G. Farragut
• Superintendent at the United States Naval Academy 
• Commander, Mississippi River Squadron
• Vicksburg Campaign, Fort Fisher Assault

Service Record:

• Began naval service at age 10 under his father, Commodore David Porter
• Midshipman in Mexican Navy, 1824
• Midshipman in U.S. Navy, USS United States (Peacetime Navy)
• Promoted to Lieutenant (1841) during his time at the Coast Survey and U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office
• Mexican American War Service, awarded Captain of Spitfire
• Commanding Officer, USS Supply
• Commanding Officer, USS Powhatan
• Promoted to Commander (Civil War)
• Commanding Officer, Mortar Boat Flotilla
• New Orleans Campaign, Vicksburg Campaign, Red River Expedition, Fort Fisher
• Mississippi River Squadron Commander (1862)
• North Atlantic Blockading Squadron Commander (1864)
• Superintendent, U.S. Naval Academy (1865)
• SECNAV advisor under President U.S. Grant

 
Raphael Semmes (1809-1877)

Greatest Achievements:

• As Captain of the commerce raider CSS Alabama, he took a record 69 prizes
• Only American to have the distinction of holding positions as a General and Admiral simultaneously
• Destruction of USS Hatteras
• Accomplished lawyer and professor of philosophy and literature at LSU
• Member of the Alabama Hall of Fame

Service Record:

•  Entered the U.S. Navy as a midshipman in 1826
• Commanding Officer, USS Somers in Mexican American War (1846)
• Promoted to Commander (1855)
• Resigns from U.S. Navy (1861)
• Accepts rank of Commander in Confederate Navy (1861)
• Commanding Officer CSS Sumter
• Promoted to Captain (1862)
• Commanding Officer, CSS Alabama
• Lost battle against USS Kearsarge off the coast of France; avoided capture
• Promoted Rear Admiral (1865)
• Commanding Officer, James River Squadron (1865)
• Appointed Brigadier General in the CSA (1865)

The new poll will be posted on the left side of the blog page for the next two weeks.  Happy voting!

Matthew F. Maury Wins Final Quarterfinal Poll; Semifinal Polls Posted

Matthew Fontaine Maury, the intrepid astronomer turned Confederate won the final "Greatest Civil War Naval Officer" Quarterfinal Poll. A brief biography of Matthew Fontaine Maury can be found HERE, courtesy of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Thus, the "final four" naval officers will square off each other to determine who will represent their respective organizations in their final round. David Dixon Porter will go up against William Cushing for the Union Navy, and Matthew F. Maury will be pitted against Raphael Semmes in this week's semifinal polls for the Confederate side. BOTH polls will be available to vote on the website, and will be up a few days longer than normal.

Raphael Semmes Wins Quarterfinal Poll #3; Final Quarterfinal Poll Posted

Rear Admiral Raphael Semmes, famed Captain of the CSS Alabama and Sumter, won this past week's quarterfinal poll against John M. Brooke. Semmes received a decisive 15 votes to Brooke's 2. The final quarterfinal poll is posted, squaring Matthew F. Maury against Thomas Lockwood. After the final quarterfinal poll is completed, we will begin the exciting semifinal polls with the remaining four winners from previous polls.

Raphael Semmes Wins Week 5 Poll; Poll 6 Posted

Last month, the CWN 150 announced that it will begin a poll to decide who was the greatest naval officer of the Civil War. The polls will stretch over a few months, ultimately with a showdown between Union and Confederate officers. This past week, we highlighted our first poll with Confederate naval officers: Raphael Semmes, Josiah Tattnal, French Forrest, and Duncan Ingraham. After a week of voting, Raphael Semmes won decisively with 12 votes.We will be posting the second round of Confederate naval officers today: James Bullock, Sidney S. Lee, George Dixon, and Thomas Lockwood. Please vote, and encourage others to! Reproduced is Raphael Semmes' brief biography from the Naval History and Heritage Command:

Raphael Semmes was born in Charles County, Maryland, on 27 September 1809. Entering the Navy as a Midshipman in 1826, he subsequently studied law and was admitted to the bar while remaining in the service. During the Mexican War, he commanded the brig USS Somers in the Gulf of Mexico. She was lost in a storm off Vera Cruz in December 1846, but Semmes was commended for his actions in that incident. While on extended leave after the war, he practiced law in Mobile, Alabama. Promoted to the rank of Commander in 1855, Semmes was assigned to Lighthouse duties until 1861, when Alabama's secession from the Union prompted him to resign from the U.S. Navy and adhere to the Confederacy.

Appointed a Commander in the Confederate Navy in April 1861, Raphael Semmes was sent to New Orleans to convert a steamer into the cruiser CSS Sumter. He ran her through the Federal blockade in June 1861 and began a career of commerce raiding that is without equal in American naval history. During Sumter's six months' operations in the West Indies and the Atlantic, he captured eighteen merchant vessels and skillfully eluded pursuing Union warships. With his ship badly in need of overhaul, he brought her to Gibraltar in January 1862 and laid her up when the arrival of Federal cruisers made a return to sea impossible.

After taking himself and many of his officers to England, Semmes was promoted to the rank of Captain and given command of the newly-built cruiser CSS Alabama. From August 1862 until June 1864, Semmes took his ship through the Atlantic, into the Gulf of Mexico, around the Cape of Good Hope and into the East Indies, capturing some sixty merchantmen and sinking one Federal warship, USS Hatteras. At the end of her long cruise, Alabama was blockaded at Cherbourg, France, while seeking repairs. On 19 June 1864, Semmes took her to sea to fight the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and was wounded when she was sunk in action. Rescued by the British yacht Dearhound, he went to England, recovered and made his way back to the Confederacy.

Semmes was promoted to Rear Admiral in February 1865 and commanded the James River Squadron during the last months of the Civil War. When the fall of Richmond, Virginia, forced the destruction of his ships, he was made a Brigadier General and led his sailors as an infantry force. Briefly imprisoned after the conflict, he worked as a teacher and newspaper editor until returning to Mobile, where he pursued a legal career. Raphael Semmes died on 30 August 1877.