Kearsrage vs. Alabama, June 19, 1864
For two years the CSS Alabama wreaked havoc with Union shipping. That stopped on June 19, 1864 when the USS Kearsarge sunk the rebel commerce raider off the coast of France. John Winslow, the Kearsarge’s commander, died at his home in Boston 150 years ago last month. From the October 18, 1873 issue of Harper’s Weekly:
THE LATE ADMIRAL WINSLOW.
We give on this page a portrait of the late Rear-Admiral JOHN A. WINSLOW, the hero of the Kearsage and Alabama fight, who died on Monday, September 29, at his residence on Kearsarge Avenue, Boston Highland, after an illness of nearly two years. The late Admiral was in the sixty-second year of his age, having been born on the 9th of November, 1811, in North Carolina. On the 1st of February, 1827, he entered the Naval Academy as the protégé of DANIEL WEBSTER, having been then a resident of North Carolina. He was with the Falmouth (West India) squadron, in 1829-1831, and in 1833 was promoted to the rank of Passed Midshipman. He was sent to the Boston Navy-yard in 1834, and he accompanied the Brazil squadron in 1835-37. He obtained the commission of Lieutenant December 9, 1839, and subsequently took part in the Mexican War, as chief officer on board the Saratoga, twenty guns, but he was not again actively employed until 1852, when he was detailed for the St. Lawrence, the flag-ship of Commander DULANG. In 1855 he was promoted to the rank of Commander, and ordered to Boston. In 1862, upon the organization of the Mississippi flotilla, he was recalled to active duty with the commission of Captain. On the 16th of July he was appointed to the command of the Kearsarge, and in recognition of his services on board that vessel, he was, after the sinking of the Alabama, promoted to the rank of Commodore; and on the 2d of March, 1870, when a resident of Massachusetts, he obtained the rank of Rear-Admiral, commanding the Pacific fleet. His total sea service was twenty years and ten months; on shore, off duty, thirteen years and one month; unemployed, eleven years and nine months – making a total service of forty-five years and eight months. The late Admiral was a man of rather full habit, with hair thin and quite gray. He dressed plainly, and his manner was quiet and unassuming.
Pilgrim’s descendant
no more Alabama (at sea level)
circular fight
According to Wikipedia, John Ancrum Winslow was “a descendant of Mayflower passenger Mary Chilton and her husband John Winslow, who was a brother of Pilgrim father Edward Winslow.” Also, during the Mexican War Winslow shared a shipboard cabin with Raphael Semmes, the Alabama’s commander.
You can read about The Battle of Cherbourg at Naval History and Heritage Command, where I got three of the images: the top battle scene; Winslow in profile; Kearsarge’s officers on deck “at Cherbourg, France, soon after her 19 June 1864 victory over CSS Alabama. Her Commanding Officer, Captain John A. Winslow, is 3rd from left.”
Other sites with articles about the naval battle include Warfare History Network and the Encyclopedia of Alabama. The Alabama shipwreck was discovered in 1984.
The 1873 Harper’s Weekly content is from Hathi Trust; the section reproduced above is on page 917. From the Library of Congress: sheet music; a Winslow report and battle map
Captain Winslow 3rd from left
