Raphael Semmes - After The War

After The War

Semmes was briefly held as a prisoner after the war but was released on parole; he was later arrested for treason on December 15, 1865. After a good deal of behind-the-scenes political machinations, all charges were eventually dropped, and he was finally released on April 7, 1866. After this release, he worked as a professor of philosophy and literature at Louisiana State Seminary (now Louisiana State University), as a county judge, and then as a newspaper editor; his controversial military service was always a factor in forcing his job changes. Semmes later returned to Mobile and resumed his legal career.

He defended both his actions at sea and the political actions of the southern states in his 1869 Memoirs of Service Afloat During The War Between the States. The book was viewed as one of the most cogent but bitter defenses written about the South's "Lost Cause."

In 1871 the citizens of Mobile presented Semmes with what became known as the Raphael Semmes House, and it remained his residence until his untimely death in 1877 from complications due to food poisoning; he was then interred in Mobile's Old Catholic Cemetery.

Raphael Semmes is a member of the Alabama Hall of Fame. One of the streets on the current Louisiana State University campus is named in his honor, as is Semmes Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.