Captain Raphael Semmes was a typical representative of Southern chivalry. He was an ardent admirer of the South and a firm believer in her peculiar "institution." His memoirs, written after the war, breathe secession in every line. He was born in Charles county, Maryland, Sept. 27, 1809. At the age of seventeen he received an appointment as midshipman, but did not enter active service until six years later, meanwhile adding the study of law to his naval studies. In 1834, at the end of his first cruise, he was admitted to the bar. In 1837 he was made a lieutenant, and commanded the United States brig Somers, which assisted in blockading the Mexican coast during the war with that country. While in chase of another vessel a terrific gale arose. The Somers was foundered and most of her crew were drowned. A court martial acquitted Semmes of any fault in this matter, and in 1855 was promoted to the rank of commander. In February, 1861, he was a member of the Lighthouse Board, of which body he had been secretary for several years. The provisional government of the Confederacy was not yet a fortnight old when he was summoned to Montgomery. Hastily resigning his Federal commission, he met Jefferson Davis in that city, and was soon speeding northward on an important mission. Mr. Davis had not yet fully made up his cabinet, had not even a private secretary apparently, for Semmes' instructions were in Davis' own handwriting. The funds for the trip were borrowed from a private banker. Semmes visited the arsenals at Richmond and Washington, and the principal workshops in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, in search of information and supplies. In New York he procured a large quantity of percussion caps, and shipped them to Montgomery. Thousands of pounds of gunpowder were also shipped southward by him before any hindrance was placed in the way of such operations. Semmes entered the Confederate navy with the rank of commander, the same which he had held in the Federal service. He was promoted to captain about the time he took command of the Alabama, and near the close of the war was again promoted to rear admiral. April 18th, 1861, he was ordered to take command of the steamer Sumter, at New Orleans. More than a month was spent in converting the innocent packet steamer into a war vessel, and before he could get to sea the mouths of the Mississippi were blockaded by a Federal fleet. The propeller of the Sumter could not be raised, and when she was under sail alone, the propeller dragged through the water, greatly retarding her speed.