Alabama was the most famous of the 20 Confederate cruisers that attacked Union merchant ships and whalers during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Together with the Florida, Shenandoah, and 17 other cruisers, the Alabama destroyed 257 Union ships. The Confederate cruisers also forced more than 700 other Union ships to travel under foreign flags to avoid attack. The raiders had little effect on the outcome of the Civil War. But their actions disrupted trade and nearly destroyed the United States Merchant Marine.
The Alabama was built in England in 1862. Under the command of Confederate naval hero Raphael Semmes, it sank, burned, or captured 64 ships in the next two years. In June 1864, the USS Kearsarge, a Union warship commanded by Captain John A. Winslow, found the Alabama in the harbor of Cherbourg, France, where it had gone for repairs. On June 19, the Alabama engaged and fired on the Kearsarge. Within an hour, the Kearsarge sank the Alabama.
After the Civil War, the United States demanded that the British pay for damages inflicted on Northern shipping by the Alabama and other Confederate warships built in British ports. In 1872, under guidelines from the previous year’s Treaty of Washington, the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration decided that Britain had failed in its obligations of neutrality by aiding the Confederate Navy. Britain was obliged to pay the United States $151/2 million for damages.
