re: #108 Decatur Deb

Semmes had an Oh Shit moment when he found out the war had been over for months and he was sort of a pirate. Made a negotiated surrender in England.

[Jay puts on his Military History Pedant hat (a plumed Admiral’s bicorne today)]

Actually it was James Waddell, commander of CSS Shenandoah who was the late-surrender guy ( he only found out about the end of the war while raiding whalers off the coast of Alaska, and had to sail all the way to Liverpool -the long way- to bring his ship back).

Raphael Semmes was the captain of the noted raider CSS Alabama - who got rescued after a Union ship sent Alabama to the bottom off Cherbourg in June 1864 (the battle famously painted by Edouard Manet who was there on vacation at the time).

Good riddance to the statue in any case.