AN ENGLISHMAN’S VIEW
OF THE
BATTLE
BETWEEN THE
ALABAMA AND THE KEARSARGE.
AN ACCOUNT OF
THE NAVAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE BRITISH CHANNEL, ON SUNDAY, JUNE 19TH,
1864. FROM INFORMATION PERSONALLY OBTAINED IN THE TOWN
OF CHERBOURG, AS WELL AS FROM THE OFFICERS AND
CREW OF THE UNITED STATES’ SLOOP-OF-WAR
KEARSARGE, AND THE WOUNDED AND
PRISONERS OF THE CONFEDERATE
PRIVATEER.
BY
FREDERICK MILNES EDGE.
NEW YORK:
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH,
No. 770 BROADWAY.
1864.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864,
By ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
EDWARD O. JENKINS,
Printer and Stereotyper,
20 North William Street.
This Record
OF
A MOST GLORIOUS VICTORY
GAINED IN THE CAUSE OF
JUSTICE AND HUMANITY,
IS
DEDICATED TO
THAT NOBLE OFFSPRING OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
The Sanitary Commission of the United States,
BY
THEIR OBEDIENT SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
London, July 14, 1864.
The writer of this pamphlet is an English gentleman of intelligence nowresiding in London, who has spent some time in this country, and is knownand esteemed by many of our best citizens. He visited Cherbourg for theexpress purpose of making the inquiry and investigation, the results ofwhich are embodied in the following pages, and generously devotes thepecuniary results of his copyright to the funds of the SanitaryCommission.
The importance of the engagement between the United States Sloop-of-war,Kearsarge, and the Confederate Privateer, Alabama, cannot be estimated bythe size of the two vessels. The conflict off Cherbourg on Sunday, the19th of June, was the first decisive engagement between shipping propelledby steam, and the first test of the merits of modern naval artillery. Itwas, moreover, a contest for superiority between the ordnance of Europeand America, whilst the result furnishes us with data wherefrom toestimate the relative advantages of rifled and smooth-bore cannon at shortrange.
Perhaps no greater or more numerous misrepresentations were ever made inregard to an engagement than in reference to the one in question. Thefirst news of the conflict came to us enveloped in a mass of statements,the greater part of which, not to use an unparliamentary expression, wasdiametrically opposed to the truth; and although several weeks have nowelapsed since the Alabama followed her many defenceless victims to theirwatery grave, these misrepresentations obtain as much credence as ever.The victory of the Kearsarge was accounted for, and the defeat of theAlabama excused or palliated upon the following principal reasons:—
1. The superior size and speed of the Kearsarge.
2. The superiority of her armament.
3. The chain-plating at her sides.
4. The greater number of her crew.
5. The unpreparedness of the Alabama.
6. The assumed necessity of Captain Semmes’ accepting the challengesent him (as rep