The Alabama and the Kearsarge

by William Marvel

On June 19, 1864, the Confederate cruiser Alabama and the USS Kearsarge faced off in the English Channel outside the French port of Cherbourg. The Kearsarge had seen little action, and its men greeted the battle with enthusiasm. The Alabama, on the other hand, had limped into the harbor with a near-mutinous crew after spending months sinking Union ships all over the globe. Commander Raphael Semmes intended to put the ship into drydock for a few months - but then the Kearsarge steamed onto the scene, setting the stage for battle. About an hour after the Alabama fired the first shot, it began to sink, and its crew was forced to wave the white flag of surrender. . Marvel consulted the original muster rolls and logbooks for both ships, the virtually unknown letters of Confederate paymaster Clarence Yonge, and census and pension information. The letters and diaries of officers and crewmen describe the tensions aboard the ships, as do excerpts from the little-used original logs of Alabama co