During its clandestine construction in Liverpool, it was known as 'Number 290'. When it was finally unleashed as the CSS Alabama, the Confederate warship triggered the last great military campaign of the Civil War; a maritime adventure unparalled in history; an infamous example of British political treachery; and the largest ever retribution tribunal: 15,500 in gold paid by Britain to the United States. This riveting, true story of the Anglo-Confederate alliance that led to the creation of a Southern navy brings to light the dramatic global impact of the American Civil War. Like many matters in the War between the States, it started over cotton: Lincoln's naval blockade prevented the South from exporting its prize commodity to England. In response, the Confederacy came up with a unique plan to divert the North's vessels and open the waterways- a plan that would include the covert building of a navy in Britain, a daring strategy that would call into play an unforgettable cast of colourful characters including James Bulloch, Lord John Russell, Charles Francis Adams, and Raphael Semmes. With THE REBEL RAIDERS, naval historian James Tertius deKay brings to dazzling life an amazing, little- known piece of history that is at once an important work of Civil War scholarship and a suspenseful tale of military strategy, international espionage, and a legal crisis, the outcome of which still affects the world today.