CSS Alabama's South Atlantic Expeditionary Raid
CSS Alabama's South Atlantic Expeditionary Raid commenced shortly after the Confederate States Navy ship CSS Alabama left Haiti and the Caribbean Sea and cruised south toward Brazil in the south Atlantic Ocean. The raid lasted from about the beginning of February 1863 to the end of July 1863.
The primary area of operation during this expeditionary raid, was the Atlantic seaboard of South America starting from the northern end of Brazil then ranging up down along the Brazilian coast before finally heading east toward southern Africa.
Raid overview[]
CSS Alabama worked its way slowly down the east coast of Brazil in the most devastating of its seven raids, capturing or burning dozens of enemy Yankee vessels.
From this raiding area off the coast of Brazil, CSS Alabama made its way into the Indian Ocean by way of the Cape of Good Hope to continue its unhindered wrecking of enemy commerce in the Indian Ocean as far as Indonesia.
Raid bounty[]
Date | Ship name | Ship type | Location | Disposition of prize |
---|---|---|---|---|
February 3, 1863 | Palmetto | ? | ? | Burned |
February 21, 1863 | Olive Jane | ? | mid-Atlantic | Burned |
February 21, 1863 | Golden Eagle | Extreme Clipper | mid-Atlantic | Burned |
February 27, 1863 | Washington | ? | mid-Atlantic | Captured & let go |
March 1, 1863 | Bethia Thayer | ? | ? | ? |
March 2, 1863 | John A. Parks | ? | ? | Captured |
March 15, 1863 | Punjab | ? | ? | Captured |
March 23, 1863 | Charles Hill | ? | ? | Captured |
March 23, 1863 | Morning Star | Boston clipper | Near St. Paul | Captured & let go |
March 23, 1863 | Nora | ? | ? | Captured |
March 26, 1863 | King Fisher | ? | ? | ? |
April 3, 1863 | Louisa Hatch | ? | ? | Captured |
April 15, 1863 | Lafayette | ? | ? | Captured |
April 15, 1863 | Kate Cory | Schooner converted to Brig | ? | Captured/Burned |
April 16, 1863 | Lafayette | ? | ? | ? |
April 22, 1863 | Nye | Bark | ? | Captured/Burned |
April 23, 1863 | Dorcas Prince | ? | ? | Captured |
May 3, 1863 | Union Jack | ? | ? | Captured |
May 3, 1863 | Sea Lareta | ? | ? | Captured |
May 25, 1863 | Gildersleeve | ? | ? | Captured |
May 25, 1863 | Justina | ? | ? | Captured |
May 29, 1863 | Jabez Snow | ? | ? | Captured |
June 2, 1863 | Amazonian | ? | ? | Burned |
June 4, 1863 | Azzapodi | ? | ? | Captured |
June 4, 1863 | Queen of Beauty | Clipper | Off Brazil | Captured & released |
June 5, 1863 | Talisman | medium Clipper | ? | Burned |
June 20, 1863 | Conrad | Bark | coast of Brazil | commissioned as Tuscaloosa |
July 1, 1863 | Anna F. Schmidt | ? | ? | Burned |
July 6, 1863 | Express | ? | Coast of Brazil | Burned |
References[]
- Hearn, Chester G., Gray Raiders of the Sea, Louisiana State Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8071-2114-2
- Howe and Matthews, American Clipper Ships 1833 - 1858 Volume I, Dover Publications, 1986. ISBN 0-486-25115-2
- Luraghi, Raimondo, A History of the Confederate Navy, U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1996. ISBN 1-55750-527-6
- CSS Alabama