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CSS Alabama's South Atlantic Expeditionary Raid

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CSS Alabama
CSS Alabama

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

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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

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CSS Alabama's South Atlantic Expeditionary Raid
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 and released
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 and released
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 and 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

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  • 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