Chasing After CSS Nashville: November 19, 1862

 A Northern newspaper cartoon mocking the U.S. Navy's inability to capture CSS Nashville.  CSS Nashville was the Confederate State g...

CSS Alabama Migrates South For the Winter, November 1862

While raiding Gulf Stream merchant traffic near Nova Scotia, Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes was well aware that the weather could turn n...

Alabama's Gulf Stream Raid, October 3-15, 1862

Alabama burning the ship Brilliante and her $93,000 worth of grain off the coast of Nova Scotia When CSS Alabama and her captain Raphel Se...

Rear Admiral Wilkes and his Magical Flying Squadron

Steam sloop USS Wachusett In mid-1862, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had a serious problem on his hands.  Intelligence indicated that ...

CSS Alabama is Commissioned

Before the cruiser CSS Alabama could begin her famous campaigns, she had to get out of England without being impounded by British authoritie...

CSS Florida is Commissioned and Puts to Sea

In late July, Confederate Lieutenant John Newland Maffitt arrived in Nassau, Bahamas aboard one of his blockade runners.  Soon after arrivin...

CSS Sumter Cruise Comes to an End

After a successful cruise across the Atlantic, the Confederate cruiser CSS Sumter made port in Cadiz, Spain to fix a leaky hull in January...

CSS Nashville in England

The second Confederate commerce raider to put to sea was the steamer CSS Nashville . It was a problematic cruise and not nearly as successfu...

CSS Sumter Crosses the Atlantic

Once Raphael Semmes and CSS Sumter escaped from the West Indies, they headed east across the Atlantic. Along the way, he captured a few mor...

CSS Sumter Escapes-Again

Commander James Palmer, commanding officer of the steam sloop USS Iroquois , received word in mid-November 1861 that the Confederate cruiser...

CSS Sumter Makes a Break For It

CSS Sumter in New Orleans It was realized early on by Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory that he would have to have actual...

Confederate Privateering Begins

Confederate privateer document (Image courtesy of the Museum of the Confederacy) With the hostilities officially underway, both sides began ...