Captain Samuel D. Buck and Rev. Dr. Henry M. Wharton, representing Franklin Buchanan Camp, No. 747, U. C. V., Baltimore. Dr. M. L. jarrett, Commander, and Charles H. Mettee, Adjutant, representing James R. Herbert Camp, No. 657, U. C. V., Baltimore.
Major James W. Denny and John McGregor, Esq., representing Arnold Elzey Camp, No. 1015, U. C. V., Baltimore.
With representatives from U. C. V. Camps in Annapolis, Cumberland, Frederick, Easton, Rockville, Leonardtown and Hyattsville, Md.
ADMIRAL RAPHAEL SEMMES.
A Monograph by His Son, Captain S. SPENCER SEMMES,
Osceola, Arkansas.
Admiral Raphael Semmes was born in Charles County, Md., on September 27, 1809, of Catholic ancestry. His father was Richard Thompson Semmes, fifth in descent from the first American ancestor, Benedict Joseph Semmes, of Normandy, France, who came over with Lord Baltimore in 1640; and his mother was Catherine Hooe Middleton, a descendant of Arthur Middleton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. There was only one other child, Samuel Middleton Semmes, later a well-known lawyer of Cumberland, Md. The mother died during the infancy of the boys, and when Raphael was about ten years old his father died, leaving them almost penniless. The two boys were taken into the family of Raphael Semmes, of Georgetown, D. C, an uncle, and when Raphael was about fifteen years old, he was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy by another uncle, Dr. Joseph Benedict Semmes, who, at the time, was a member of Congress from Piscataway, Md. There being, at that time, no United States Naval Academy, young Semmes was placed on board the seventy-four-gun training ship North Carolina. His first position, on leaving the training ship, was with Commodore Wilkes, at his quarters on Capitol
