Huh! The only reason Raphael Semmes lost the battle was that the CSS Alabama had to fight it with French powder--his was unusable after many weeks at sea!
Not sure if Semmes was using French powder, or not. His ship, the CSS Alabama, was in need of an extensive refit. His hull needed scraping & his boilers needed maintenance, so he couldn't run even if he'd wanted to.
Still, with all those disadvantages, one of his shells lodged in the USS Kearsarge's stern post -- and failed to explode. Had that shell gone off, the US ship would have been crippled & may have sunk.
Plus the crew were a little hung over.