Rebel Raider off the Texas Coast

 

                                   Captain Raphael Semmes on board the CSS Alabama

In January, 1863, less than two weeks after Confederate forces recaptured Galveston, a squadron of five Union warships arrived at the entrance to Galveston Bay.   Their purpose was to reestablish the Union naval blockade, driven off a few days earlier by Texas troops under the command of Major General John B. Magruder.  Venting their wrath over the loss of Texas’ largest city, the Union vessels began lobbing shells into Galveston.  Commodore Henry H. Bell’s attention was diverted to a distant ship on the horizon.  Rumors swirled of a new Confederate warship plying the Atlantic Ocean, but she was too far east to be a threat.  Nevertheless, the ship might be a Confederate vessel.  Bell ordered the side paddlewheel steamer, USS Hatteras, to chase down the mystery ship. 

Prior to the Civil War, the 210-foot Hatteras had served as a passenger steamer on the Delaware River.  In desperate need of steam vessels to chase down blockade runners, the U.S. Navy purchased every seaworthy steamboat available, mostly passenger and ferry boats.  Hatteras possessed an iron deck, making her ideal for supporting large naval guns.   Because of the paddle wheels, she was limited in the number of guns she could carry.  Four 32-pound shell guns, two 20-pound rifled guns, and a 12-pound howitzer were installed.  The added weight, however, decreased her speed to 7 knots.  A crew of 126 men and officers was assigned to the converted gunboat under the command of Commander George Foster Emmons.  Hatteras was dispatched to the South Atlantic Blockade Squadron to patrol the coast of West Florida.  Despite its slow pace, Hatteras managed to capture 14 blockade runners; seven of which were captured during an evening raid on Cedar Keys, Florida.  She was later assigned to the Western Gulf Coast Blockade Squadron, patrolling the waters off Louisiana and Texas.  Emmons was replaced by Commander Homer C. Blake; who had performed a geographical survey of the Texas coast before the war.  

Hatteras steamed toward the mystery ship at top speed, but was moving too far from the support of her squadron.  The mystery ship’s commander counted on it, keeping her just slow enough to entice a chase.  Twenty miles from the Texas coast, he suddenly turned about and steamed toward Hatteras.  The evening darkness hampered identification, except for the presence of a British flag flying from her aft mast.  Within 70 yards, Blake called out to the ship to stop and identify herself.  “What ship are you?”  The mystery ship replied, “Her Britannic Majesty Ship Petrel!”  Not convinced of her neutral nation identity, Blake shouted back that he was sending a boat over.  Before the boat could depart, Petral turned her broadside to directly face Hatteras.  The British flag was lowered and replaced with the flag of the Confederate States of America.  A second identity was shouted out.  “This is the Confederate States Steamer Alabama - Fire!  Blake was now locked into a duel with the Confederacy’s deadliest warship.

The steam cruiser CSS Alabama was British-built under the discrete direction of Confederate Agent Commander James Bulloch.  According to Great Britain’s neutrality laws, vessels could be constructed for foreign powers at war provided they were not armed.  That didn’t mean they couldn’t be armed outside British territory.  Upon completion, Alabama sailed for the Azores Islands off the Portuguese coast.  Eight 32-pound smoothbore guns, one 8-inch smoothbore pivot gun and a ship-killing 110-pound Blakely pivot gun were brought aboard.  To save fuel and reduce drag, the cruiser’s screw, or propeller, could be raised, enabling her to be solely propelled by sail.  Lured by pay in gold coin that was double their normal salaries and booty from captured ships, the crew was recruited from British ships.  The officers were Southerners.   The cruiser was placed under the command of Captain Raphael Semmes, who had previously commanded the steam cruiser CSS Sumter.   Before Alabama entered the Gulf of Mexico, she had seized 26 vessels.  Twenty-two were burned after any useful items were confiscated.  The rest were bonded to send prisoners home or had foreign registry.  Confederate agents and captured newspapers kept Semmes apprised of any opportunities.  Cruising off Santo Domingo, a Boston newspaper informed Semmes of a planned coastal invasion of Texas by Major General Nathaniel Banks, requiring over twenty transport vessels.  Although Alabama’s main purpose was to sink Union merchant vessels, Semmes couldn’t resist an opportunity to attack Union troop ships.  The invasion was thwarted when Confederate troops liberated Galveston, capturing a Union regiment and driving off Union blockaders in the process.  On January 11, 1863, off the Galveston coast, Alabama’s’ lookout yelled out, “Land ho! Sail ho!”  He counted five warships, but no transports.  It became apparent that Galveston had been recaptured when they fired their guns on the Texas port.  One of the warships, USS Hatteras, approached.  Semmes ordered Alabama to steam west, luring Hatteras away from the coast. 

Hatteras’ Executive Officer Henry O. Porter told Blake, “That, sir, I think is the Alabama.  What shall we do?”  Blake replied calmly, “If that is the Alabama we must fight her.”  A tremendous broadside from Alabama crashed into Hatteras’ hull.  Porter shouted out, “Alabama, boys give it to her.”  The firepower of the Confederate raider was too much.  Semmes later recalled his men had “handled their pieces with great spirit and commendable coolness.”  One shot hit the port paddlewheel, forcing portions of the wheel into her hull.  Another shot hit the steam chest, disabling the engine and sending out a cloud of scalding steam.  Hatteras was now dead in the water.  A shot from Alabama’s 110-pound Blakely ripped into Hatteras’ sick bay, setting bottles of turpentine on fire.  The fire spread throughout the ship, threatening the powder magazine.  An alert African-American steward desperately began drowning the gunpowder in the rising seawater to keep it from exploding.  Alabama’s guns punched gaping holes into Hatteras’ hull below the waterline.  Water poured through, forcing Hatteras to list on her side.  Blake ordered a canon fired to signal surrender.  The battle was over in thirteen minutes.

Alabama ceased fire and sent out her boats to rescue Hatteras’ crew.  Semmes set course to Jamaica to refuel and drop off his prisoners; a task made difficult because the number of prisoners equaled the number of crew members.  Semmes men had to sleep on their arms.  Later that evening, the Union warship USS Brooklyn arrived at the site of the battle.  Submerged in 8 feet of water, only the top of Hatteras’ masts protruded from the surface.  Her commission flag was still flying - clear evidence Hatteras had fought honorably.   Hatteras was the only warship Alabama had sunk until her fateful duel off the French coast with the USS Kearsarge.  The sinking of Hatteras, along with Galveston’s recapture, helped keep one of the few Confederate ports in Confederate hands until the end of the war.