CSS Alabama Burning a Yankee Whaler

oil on canvas — 20”x 30”

$15,000

The CSS Alabama was the most famous, and the most feared, of the Southern “raiders.” At the beginning of the Civil War, the South had no warships, and they did not have the capability to build them. Since they couldn’t challenge the Union Navy, they devised a plan to prey on Union merchant shipping. Agents went to England and secretly purchased newly built British ships. In 1862 they purchased a ship, sailed it to the Azores, and the Confederate captain, Raphael Semmes, took command. Naming it the CSS Alabama, he loaded eight cannons on board and began his cruise.

The mission of the Southern raiders was to capture and destroy Union merchant ships in order to disrupt northern trade, and to force the Union to use its warships to protect their merchant fleet. The Union considered these actions to be piracy, but the South saw them as legitimate acts of war. For two years Semmes sailed the seas, capturing 65 Union merchant vessels, and sinking the USS Hatteras.

In June, 1864, off the coast of Cherbourg, France, the union warship Kearsarge finally caught up with the raider and put an end to her short but eventful career. The battle was watched by spectators, including Edouard Manet, who later painted a picture of the scene. In an hour of furious cannon-fire, the Alabama was sunk.