Guadalcanal General Author:John Foster the career of Raphael Semmes in commanding successively the Confederate cruisers Sumter and Alabama is about as close to a real saga of the sea as anything in American history. Until he lost the Alabama in it's dramatic battle with the Kearsage in June, 1864, he had been the scourge of Yankee shipping for three years and virtually a one-ship fle... more »et for the Confederacy. Semmes himself and two of his principal officers, John McIntosh Kell and Arthur Sinclair, left full accounts of the careers of the two famous Confederate sea raiders. John Foster has taken these narratives and other contemporary accounts and produced from them a swift-moving, authentic account of the career of Semmes and his ships. This is an unusually good book for young adults. --Chicago Tribune