Summary of Phil Keith & Tom Clavin's To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 When the Civil War began in 1861, Raphael Semmes hoped to become a captain of a ship. He was not a native-born Southerner, but he had wartime experience and was a passionate supporter of the Confederacy. He was not too old to be a seafaring captain.
#2 The life of a midshipman was difficult, to say the least. They were the lowest ranking officers, yet they were senior to all the enlisted men. They dined and lived with the officers, but spent most of their time getting the crew to attend to orders and their assigned tasks.
#3 Raphael Semmes, the son of a farmer, was a midshipman in the US Navy in the 1820s and ’30s. He took to the seas extremely well, and enjoyed writing about his experiences in journals. He eventually married and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he would grow his practice and start a family.
#4 The marriage between Raphael and Anne Semmes was often a troubled one. The difference in religion was just one of the many factors that led to their disagreements. Semmes was a navy lieutenant, which meant he could not leave the service to focus on his law practice.

Sujets

• Religion
• Civil War Period
• Histoire
• United States
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 14 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822507876
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Phil Keith & Tom Clavin's To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When the Civil War began in 1861, Raphael Semmes hoped to become a captain of a ship. He was not a native-born Southerner, but he had wartime experience and was a passionate supporter of the Confederacy. He was not too old to be a seafaring captain.

#2

The life of a midshipman was difficult, to say the least. They were the lowest ranking officers, yet they were senior to all the enlisted men. They dined and lived with the officers, but spent most of their time getting the crew to attend to orders and their assigned tasks.

#3

Raphael Semmes, the son of a farmer, was a midshipman in the US Navy in the 1820s and ’30s. He took to the seas extremely well, and enjoyed writing about his experiences in journals. He eventually married and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he would grow his practice and start a family.

#4

The marriage between Raphael and Anne Semmes was often a troubled one. The difference in religion was just one of the many factors that led to their disagreements. Semmes was a navy lieutenant, which meant he could not leave the service to focus on his law practice.

#5

Semmes was a landlubber for most of his life, until he was promoted to captain of a ship and sent to the Caribbean to blockade Mexican ports. He distinguished himself as captain of the Somers, a haunted ship, which was eventually sunk.

#6

Raphael Semmes was assigned to assist the army with the loan of navy guns during the Veracruz siege in 1847. He was also sent to Mexico to meet with its president, Antonio López de Santa Anna, to protest the treatment of Clay Rogers.

#7

Semmes was a member of a scouting party that found a passage that allowed Scott to forego a head-on assault on Mexico City in favor of a flanking assault. The attack on Chapultepec fortress on September 13, 1847, broke the defenders’ back, and Santa Anna surrendered.

#8

Semmes was not done with the navy, though. He wrote a book about his experiences in Mexico, which was published in 1851. He was given command of the Electra, a storeship, and was bored with this job. He soon requested another assignment.

#9

Semmes was a captain in the US Navy, and he was promoted to secretary of the Lighthouse Board in 1861, which made him responsible for all the lighthouses along the Gulf of Mexico. He was not a supporter of Southern secession, but he was a supporter of states’ rights.

#10

The entire U. S. Navy consisted of 89 ships in 1861, 56 of which were laid up in reserve and crewless. Half of the mothball fleet were so decrepit and obsolete that they were, in reality, unusable and fragile hulks.

#11

On February 18, 1861, Raphael Semmes resigned from the U. S. Navy and joined the Confederate Navy. He was sent to Montgomery, Alabama, to meet with President Jefferson Davis and help the South purchase weapons and other supplies.

#12

After the surrender of Fort Sumter, the war began to look inevitable to Semmes. He was now a Confederate officer, and he wanted to fight. He tried not to think about all the other young officers who had left the U. S. Navy and were eager to fight for their country.

#13

Semmes was appointed commander of a Confederate ship that would be the first to take the fight to the Union Navy on the high seas. He was interested in the Havana, a five-hundred-ton passenger steamer. Her biggest limitation was that she could travel only five days without refueling.

#14

When war broke out between the North and South, the Confederacy lacked the money to build a navy. They had an abundance of raw materials, but they didn’t have the means to turn them into ships that could outrun and outfight the Union naval forces.

#15

The Confederate States had a pool of officer talent, but they didn’t have enough ships to transport the materials they needed.