The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-11-11


held in Chattanooga were the
naval contingent, and no body of vet
Grams at the gathering are more de-
serving of the cheers of Dixieland
than those representatives of men
who sailed the seven seas with
Semmes, with Mafit and Waddell, serv-
ed the guns aboard the Merrimac,
the Arkansas, and the Tennessee; cut
out the enemy's ships under John
Taylor Woods leadership or led by
Hunter Davidson, blew the enemy up.
The Confederate army in size and
in accomplishments completely over
Swallowed the little naval establish
ment. and the feats of the seamen
have received tardy recognition at
home and elsewhere. except perhaps
at the hands of the Geneva Tribunal,
which awarded damages of $15,5OO,-
900 against Great Britain in connec-
tion with the depredations of Con-
federate cruisers upon United States
commerce.
A former superintendent of the u.
S. Naval Records has given the Con-
federate navy credit for developing
and fighting ironclads,. creating the
ironclad ram, creating the best and
most efficient gun of the war, the
Brooke rifle, creating and extending
the torpedo service, and operating
the first successful submarine torpedo
boat. 1t was an army officer, George
E. Dixon of the 21st Alabama, though
that commanded the historic little
submarine. when she finally achieved
her Inflated victory by Sinking the U.
S. S. Housatonic and going to water
grave beside her.
Shut off from home ports by vigi-
liant blockade, without adequate means
of communication with Richmond, and
thrown constantly on their own re-
sources, the officers of the Confeder-
ate navy upon the high seas, were
the knight Grants of the war, and
worthy representatives of the Acade-
my, which claimed as its first head
Franklin Buchanan, the fighting Adj
miral of the Confederacy.
Raphael Semmes, who received the
rank of rear admiral in the Confeder-
ate navy in recognition of his services
aboard the Alabama, captured sixty
odd United States vessels and sank
one, the Hatteras, in action, in the
course of his cruising on the Alabama,
and captured eighteen others while
commanding the Sumter, a converted
packet boat Though commonly re-
ferred to about Washington in the
Sixties as pirate" he has come to
be recognized as one of the most ex-
act opponents of law that the seas has
ever known. He had the most ex-
tensive practice in conducting naval
warfare that has ever fallen to the
Lot of any navigator and in the Ian
guage of recent assistant attorney
general of the United States (Fitts,
1879 twas the most accurate of all
seamen in the application of the law
to the facts.
He never, even in the bitterest
. time of the civil war, sank ship
without providing for the safety of its
passengers" the late Theodore Roose-
welt said in 1913 in speech at St.
Paul. Roosevelt's uncle, Commander
James D. Bulloch, G. S. NJ, by the way,
was a highly interested witness at
the christening of the Alabama off
the Azores.
But Semmes was more by a good
deal than "sea lawyer He was
an extraordinary seaman, elading cap
ture by the countless United States
vessels sent in search of him for
three years, twice escaping from the
island Of Martinique, once in the
Sumter and later in the Alabama,
Wh4AC oupCliOI VI p. NCo0Cio Ad} Out-
side prepared to sink him when he
came out He was also wonderful
commander From the day he hoist
ed the flag of the Sumter to the breez-
es of the Gulf, June 80, 1861, till the
flag of the sinking Alabama was haul
ed down off Cherbourg, June IS, 1864,
he never lost a man from disease on
either ship.
The only Confederate Tag to re-
ceive the salute of foreign power
was the the flag of the Confederate
cruiser Florida, salute from Eng
lish guns at st. George. Bermuda Is
lands. July 10th 1858 The career
of the Florida was picturesque One
OF the most daring feats of the war
is credited to her. In the open day
Light on the afternoon of Sept. 4th.