A Novel of the Civil War at Sea
This final volume in the Raphael Semmes trilogy of Civil War naval
thrillers, Seahawk Burning, follows the real-life adventures of
Confederate Captain Raphael Semmes and his ship, the C.S.S. Alabama, on
the final legs of their reign of terror on the high seas. The novel
chronicles Semmes's rise to mythic stature as he becomes Lincoln's
public enemy number one, seizing and burning scores of Yankee ships in
the Caribbean Sea, the south Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the South
China Sea before heading to France for sanctuary...all the while dodging
scores of federal Navy ships pursuing him.
Enemy vessels, spy games, mutinies, storms, and loneliness stock
Semmes's cruise during 1863-64. Meanwhile, back in the Lincoln White
House, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles tries to marshal his warships
to catch Semmes and simultaneously protect his president from spies and
assassins, one of whom is Semmes's mistress.
In addition to the main characters, the cast of Seahawk Burning
includes historical figures from the governments and navies of the North
and South as well as the Black Moses Harriet Tubman, John Wilkes Booth,
and his fellow conspirators.
All of the threads in this saga come together in a final showdown off
Cherbourg, France, when Semmes decides to take the Alabama into battle
against the U.S.S. Kearsarge, captained by his old friend John A.
Winslow. It is one of the greatest naval battles in history.
