ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES CAMP #11
SONS OF CONFEDERATE VETERANS
MOBILE, ALABAMA
VOYAGES OF THE ALABAMA
(FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA DIGITAL COLLECTION)
Map depicting the voyages of the CSS Alabama. Click on the image for the link to the University of Alabama for an interactive version.
Few ships in recent history have captured the imaginations of so many for so long as the CSS Alabama. Built in secrecy for the Confederacy in the Liverpool shipyards of John Laird Sons and Company, theAlabama became the subject of controversy even as her keel was laid. The Union did not take kindly to this expression of British sympathy for the cotton-producing South, and much diplomatic subterfuge was required to complete and launch "290," the Alabama's nom de guerre. Afloat on the high seas by the summer of 1862, the CSS Alabama harried Yankee traders and took nearly 60 prizes, dealing a blow to the American merchant marine from which it never truly recovered. The Alabama cruised the Atlantic, rounded Africa, and visited Southeast Asia before she was finally sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the French coast near Cherbourg in June, 1864.
The Alabama's brief but brilliant career has been well-documented for over a century. Contemporaneous news sources, the memoirs of her captain and officers, and official Confederate documents provide a chronicle of the Alabama at sea. Professional historians have ruminated at length on the vessel and her exploits. More recently both National Geographic and the Learning Channel covered the international effort to dive the wreck of the Alabama. The sheer beauty of the Alabama's bark rigging inspired artists of her era, including French painter Eduard Manet, and continues to fascinate modelers today. In the final analysis, children of all ages love to go down to the sea in ships.
This persistent interest in the CSS Alabama has created a body of knowledge in various formats that reside in discrete areas within the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. The formats range from published books, manuscript materials, sheet music, newspapers, maps, color prints, plans, models, and other realia. This web resource provides access to a significant portion of these materials in electronic form. View images associated with the raider in the Image Gallery. Read Documents that record the vessel's history. Take a Virtual Journey tracing the course of the Alabama and documenting its encounters with contemporary accounts. This web resource also provides a Bibliography of the Alabama-related materials held at The University of Alabama Libraries.
This resource was authored by P. Toby Graham, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies. Andrea Watson and Clark E. Center, Jr. of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library created the concept for the CSS Alabama Digital Collection. Andrea Watson is also responsible for the art work associated with the "Virtual Journey" image map. Acknowledgements are in order for Alabama Power for funding not only this project, but a larger effort toward a "library without walls." The project creators would also like to thank the University of Alabama Libraries' Digital Resources Committee, Greg Goldstien, and the School of Library and Information Studies.
The Alabama's brief but brilliant career has been well-documented for over a century. Contemporaneous news sources, the memoirs of her captain and officers, and official Confederate documents provide a chronicle of the Alabama at sea. Professional historians have ruminated at length on the vessel and her exploits. More recently both National Geographic and the Learning Channel covered the international effort to dive the wreck of the Alabama. The sheer beauty of the Alabama's bark rigging inspired artists of her era, including French painter Eduard Manet, and continues to fascinate modelers today. In the final analysis, children of all ages love to go down to the sea in ships.
This persistent interest in the CSS Alabama has created a body of knowledge in various formats that reside in discrete areas within the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library. The formats range from published books, manuscript materials, sheet music, newspapers, maps, color prints, plans, models, and other realia. This web resource provides access to a significant portion of these materials in electronic form. View images associated with the raider in the Image Gallery. Read Documents that record the vessel's history. Take a Virtual Journey tracing the course of the Alabama and documenting its encounters with contemporary accounts. This web resource also provides a Bibliography of the Alabama-related materials held at The University of Alabama Libraries.
This resource was authored by P. Toby Graham, a Ph.D. student at the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies. Andrea Watson and Clark E. Center, Jr. of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library created the concept for the CSS Alabama Digital Collection. Andrea Watson is also responsible for the art work associated with the "Virtual Journey" image map. Acknowledgements are in order for Alabama Power for funding not only this project, but a larger effort toward a "library without walls." The project creators would also like to thank the University of Alabama Libraries' Digital Resources Committee, Greg Goldstien, and the School of Library and Information Studies.