Early Life
Semmes was born at Montford's Plantation in Wilkes County, Georgia. He was a cousin of future Confederate naval hero, CSS Alabama Captain Raphael Semmes. His half-brother, Albert Gallatin Semmes, later became an Associate Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. Paul Semmes was educated at the Beman School in Hancock County. He attended the University of Virginia and became a banker and plantation owner in Columbus, Georgia. His business endeavors flourished and he became one of Columbus's most prominent citizens. From 1846 to 1861, he served as a captain in the Georgia militia. He was the author of the 1855 manual, Infantry Tactics. In 1860, Governor Joseph E. Brown appointed Semmes as quartermaster general for the state and authorized him to handle all military purchases.
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)