Well, hello to everyone, and I hope your 2022 is better than the bad movie we called 2021. Well, actually we are into the second month but close enough for the crew at the Golden Acorn to wish you a Happy New Year, and a heartfelt thank you for stopping by again. This post will be a little bit longer; let’s say we are giving you bang for the buck, and in this case, it’s literal.
The date is June 19, 1864, and we are off the coast of Cherbourg, France, at 10:20 am. There was a buzz around the countryside that there was going to be a big battle just off the coast, and it didn’t take long for the people to catch wind of it.
This week’s blog is about an event that, at the time, was very entertaining to everyone who witnessed it, but throughout the next 150 years, this event would be repeated many times over. It’s a glimpse into the future and a shot across the bow of how warfare would be conducted for conflicts to come later. Many historians would consider this the beginning of the idea of “Total War,” where soldiers alone would not be the only people caught up in its grips.
Some people came from Paris, some 70 miles away, and at this point in history, this was a far distance for most, yet the effort was made to witness the upcoming event. What people saw was a Mohican-class steam sloop-of-war, just off the coast, named the USS Kearsarge. The CSS Alabama escorted by the French Navy ironclad Couronne was heading out of the harbor. The Ironclad turned around and went back to Cherbourg’s port. The Kearsarge and Alabama steamed to a point 7 miles off the coast, just out of French territorial waters, at which point both ships started jockeying for position. The idea is to position your boat where the most firepower can be brought upon a target. The bad thing is that this means that you must turn your boat broadside, making yourself a huge target as opposed to sailing straight.
This was a literal deathmatch, but how did we get here off the coast of France in a sea battle that took place during the American Civil War, and more importantly, who won? Like Alice in Wonderland, where do we start? Well, how about at the beginning.
The date was April 12, 1861, at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The first shots of the Civil War were fired at 4:30 am; a mortar shot arcs into the air and explodes over Fort Sumter. Confederate guns from fortifications and floating batteries around Charleston Harbor open up on the fort on this signal. Outmanned, outgunned, undersupplied, and nearly surrounded by enemy batteries, Major Robert Anderson waits until around 7:00 am to respond. Captain Abner Doubleday volunteers to fire the first cannon at the Confederates, a 32-pound shot that bounces off the roof of the Iron Battery on Cummings Point. The American Civil War has just begun, and it will continue for a total of 4 years with anywhere from 620,000 to 820,000 deaths depending upon the source.
The strategy for the Union was simple, but it would take time to take effect. President Lincoln realized that this war would be like no other up to that point. This fact was reinforced with the defeat of Union troops at the Battle of Bull Run. Bull Run was fought three months later in Virginia, just 25 miles west of Washington D.C. Lincoln was under public pressure to end the war in 90 days and pushed the cautious Gen. McDowell to embark on a campaign to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. Still, McDowell’s troops were stopped at Bull Run by Brig. Gen. P.T. Beauregard’s Rebel forces. The Federals retreated to Washington, where the Lincoln administration retooled for a war that would be waged at a tremendous human and financial cost and the realization that this war would last longer than 90 days.
President Lincoln thought that the fastest way of defeating the South would be to cut off the profits from cotton. He decided upon a naval blockade of all southern ports and patrolling the coast, looking for ships trying to smuggle any material that could be used to fight the North.
Implementing such a tactic would be very difficult considering that you’re looking at patrolling over 3000 miles of coast and six major ports to include Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union utilized over 500 ships for this purpose which brought the ranks of the Navy to around 84,415 personnel. The number of sailors for the Blockade surpassed the total number of the United States military up to that point in U.S. history.
In response to this new tactic, the South knew that they needed ships to break the Union’s stranglehold off their coast. They would never be able to defeat the U.S. Navy in a straight-up fight, but they could be sneaky about it and utilize ships to simply bring in supplies under cover of darkness.
The person in charge of this project was Stephen Mallory, a former Senator from Florida before the war, who was named the Secretary of the Navy for the Confederate States. Mallory was very instrumental in building up the U.S. Navy before the war, which would cause him trouble later in life. This idea of strangling a country economically by many seemed uncivilized and went against the idea of fighting with honor. Because of this tactic, Mallory decided to take the gloves off and retaliate against the U.S. Navy because of this tactic. Some examples of this were to utilize what was called torpedoes back then but are better known today as anti-ship mines being placed in the rivers and harbors, which caused many casualties to the Union.
Mallory faced one major problem: the inability to produce any type of ship in great numbers to help the South’s war effort with all the major ports being blockaded. The best course of action was decided to concentrate on obtaining two types of boats. The Blockade Runner and the Raider resulted from this new tactic the South would engage in.
The Blockade Runner was a quick ship that could also carry a large cargo, this being cotton for the South. You didn’t need to outshoot your enemy if you could simply outrun them into international waters and then onto Bermuda, which England controlled. The good part about this plan was that you could load back up with supplies and weapons and take them back to resupply the South.
The raider was totally different and harkened back to the age of piracy around the 17 century. This ship was to going to fight fire with fire, and if Confederate ships were in fear of being sunk, then Union ships would suffer the same results, even if they weren’t U.S. warships. The age of economic warfare had begun, and this was the only chance the South would have to even things out on the high seas. Mallory knew that they couldn’t cause enough damage to the U.S. Navy to stop the blockading, but if he could drive a number of these blockading ships off their job to pursue these raiders, more of his Blockade Runners could get through.
The last and perhaps the biggest obstacle to this plan was how could the South build these ships and launch them without the Union knowing about them? The solution in this new era is simply to build these ships in another location and sail them back to North America. The two countries that would work best for this endeavor would be France or England, both of which relied on the souths cotton to produce fabric and was a significant source of revenue to both countries.
In England alone, there were over 2000 mills to turn this raw cotton into textiles which accounted for huge profits all across England and the English empire. To a lesser degree, France utilized cotton to add to the nation’s GNP, but large sums of money were still involved in the cotton trade. Many southerners called cotton “White Gold,” This was the only product that the South could obtain hard currency from foreign powers to supply needed weapons and supplies. Simply put, cotton was the souths economy, and if President Lincoln could cut this trade-off, the war couldn’t continue for a protracted length of time for the South.
Time was of the essence for the Confederate States, and whatever action that needed to be taken, it had to be fast. In steps a man by the name of James Dunwoody Bulloch to do whatever he could to help the southern cause.
James Dunwoody Bulloch was the Confederacy’s chief foreign agent in Great Britain during the American Civil War. Based in Liverpool, he ordered ships to be built in England under false company names as not to violate England’s neutrality toward the Union and Confederate forces. Bulloch arranged for the unofficial purchase by Britain of Confederate cotton and the dispatch of armaments and other war supplies to the South. These secret service funds that helped with shipbuilding were also alleged to have been used to plan and allow the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The ships being built couldn’t look like naval warships but had the appearance of commerce ships so as not to draw unwanted attention to themselves, but cannons could always be added later. Blockade runners and commerce raiders that provided the Confederacy with its only source of hard currency were built in shipyards across Europe. In total, over 200 vessels were commissioned and aided the South to keep cotton flowing to Europe and hope for the Confederate States.
On July 29, 1862, Hull 290, as it was called in the drydock, was launched as a clandestine commerce ship was completed at Birkenhead shipyard on the River Mersey opposite Liverpool, England by John Laird Sons and Company. However, this ship did raise suspicions of the English government, and the ship was confiscated for violating the Foreign Enlistment Act and not allowed to leave the harbor.
Later, either that night or early the following day, Capt. Raphael Semmes and a full crew boarded the ship and simply sailed out of the harbor and into the open seas. Many speculate that bribes were paid, and officials simply looked the other way and allowed the ship to disappear. It was later found that not only was a ship allowed to sail, but it also had been armed with 6, thirty-two-pound cannon, two pivot guns, and a 7-inch rifled cannon capable of shooting a 100-pound cannonball over 4000 yards. The birth of the CSS Alabama was official, and with her crew, a two-year journey of total war began.
Capt. Semmes proceeded to disrupt Union shipping and cause as much damage as he could, hoping to pull some ships from blockading duties to chase after the Alabama. His first action was east of the Azores, where the Alabama captured and burned ten ships, mostly whalers.
The ship then steamed toward the waters off the New England coast, where she ranged as far south as Bermuda and the coast of Virginia, burning ten more ships while capturing and releasing three others.
She then set sail to the Gulf of Mexico, where she needed to resupply and render aid to troops fighting at the Battle of Galveston in coastal Texas. During that engagement, she quickly sank the Union side-wheeler USS Hatteras.
The Alabama got the attention of the Union navy, and it was decided that she must be found and destroyed at all cost. Agents were sent worldwide to try and detect where the CSS Alabama was and get word back to the navel department so they could direct pre-positioned ships to close in and sink this vessel.
The three ships that were primarily responsible to achieve this were the USS Tuscarora, USS Kearsarge, and the USS Chippewa, although any naval vessel was given the green light to engage the Alabama on sight. The three hunters had their chances at sinking the Alabama, but like a cat, Capt. Semmes maneuvered his ship to avoid being caught or sunk. Some of the close calls happened around Gibraltar, Cape Town, South Africa, but the best chance happened when the USS San Jacinto trapped Alabama and its supply ship Agrippina in the harbor of Port-de-France, Martinique. Even though the Federals set up picket boats with flares to observe any movement of the cruiser, Semmes used a heavy squall to escape.
After sinking several ships, Capt. Semmes set a course across the Indian Ocean; he reached Singapore on December 21, 1863. There he viewed more than 20 Northern merchant ships sitting in the harbor too afraid to sail because of the fear of the Alabama. He knew that his ship and the other Confederate commerce raiders had successfully disrupted U.S. shipping.
The Alabama sailed around the Indian Ocean, never spending too much time in one location. When the ship neared Cape Town, South Africa, the crew got word that the USS Vanderbilt was looking to engage and sink them. The Vanderbilt was well-armed with two 100-pound cannons. The two ships played cat and mouse until the commander of the paddler, C.H. Baldwin, believed that the Alabama sailed toward Europe and decided to return to North America. The Alabama did exactly the opposite of what Commander Baldwin thought and sailed back into the Indian Ocean. Once again, the Alabama got out of this predicament, but the ship and her crew were on borrowed time.
For 22 months the Alabama raided and destroyed enemy shipping from the Atlantic, Caribbean and to the Indian Ocean. In all, the Alabama was responsible for destroying 65 Northern merchant ships and whalers. Its ability to look like a merchant ship camouflaged its real mission to sink as many vessels as possible. They would simply sail up next to a target ship and open up the hatches concealing the many guns it possessed and engaged when they were in range. The target ships didn’t have a chance when this trap was sprung, and this tactic also saved the Alabama from sustaining any real damage during these melees.
Being at sea for so long, the Alabama needed repairs to maintain her ability to be an effective nuisance to the U.S. Navy and take ships from blockade duty. Capt. Semmes realized the repairs needed would require them to drydock the vessel. The closest drydocks were in France, so the Alabama set sail and reached Cherbourg, France, on June 11, 1864.
Flag Officer Samuel Barron was the person in charge of overseeing the task of building ships in France and attacking union ships from Europe. This location was also well known to the Union Navy. Many northern lookouts were in the French seaports reporting everything that was happening, including keeping an eye out for the Alabama. The Confederate cruisers, CSS Georgia and CSS Rappahannock, were trapped in Cherbourg harbor while the CSS Florida escaped just the week before and started cruising the Atlantic. Also, down the coast in Bordeaux, two ironclads were secretly being built for the South, being paid for by cotton proceeds. Like England, French businessmen were open for business even though both countries were neutral parties in America’s Civil War. This behavior in both countries of aiding one side over the other was technically illegal and was creating a diplomatic headache between all the parties involved.
Before the Alabama made Cherbourg, Capt. Semmes reported to Barron that his ship was in dire need of drydock repairs and that he was very ill. The Alabama had constantly been sailing through all types of climates and had visited two-thirds of the world for almost two years without any major restorations to the ship. If she was going to continue, some major repairs needed to be made.
Barron then contacted John Slidell, the Confederate Commissioner in France, and was assured that the Alabama could utilize the French dockyard for extensive repairs. That diplomatic headache was about to rear its ugly head, and the Alabama crew were caught in the middle of it.
U.S. Minister to France, William L. Drayton, immediately protested Alabama’s arrival in Cherbourg and planned use of French docking facilities by a vessel “so obnoxious and so notorious.” A message was then sent to Captain John Winslow, commander of USS Kearsarge, who was off the coast of Holland just north of Cherbourg to intercept the CSS Alabama. Before setting sail, he sent telegrams for USS St. Louis and USS Niagara to come immediately to his assistance. There were still Confederate raiders located in French ports to blockade. Winslow needed supplies to maintain his station off the French coast as it was feared that CSS Rappahannock was planning to escape.
All of the ships heading toward the French coast were “Real” sloops of war, meaning that any of these ships alone could easily destroy the Alabama. The USS Niagara was commissioned in 1885 and built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Her armaments consisted of a main battery of twelve 150-pound rifles and twenty XI-inch Dahlgrens, not to mention the smaller guns she also carried.
The USS Kearsarge was closest to the Alabama and was just one of a handful of ships that were sent over to Europe to track Confederate cruisers. While steaming toward Europe, Captain John Winslow stopped off in the Azores and gave the Kearsarge an armor upgrade to the entire hull. He attached 720 feet of single-link iron chain in three courses up and down the sloop’s port and starboard midsection. Winslow then painted the chains and hull black and put a thin veneer of wood over everything to keep this upgrade a secret. This made the Kearsarge almost bulletproof, but it slowed the ship down and lowered the ship into the water because of the added weight. This proved to be a problem when Captain Winslow ran the ship aground, causing significant damage. Permission was secured to utilize a Dutch shipyard for the needed repairs, but more importantly, this put the Kearsarge in a prime location to intercept the Alabama when it was discovered she was in France.
The Kearsarge arrived off Cherbourg on June 14, 1864. Capt. Semmes sent a message to Flag Officer Barron that he intended to leave Cherbourg and engage the Kearsarge, knowing that other union vessels were on the way.
Capt. Semmes and his Lieutenant, John Kell, discussed the options and the likelihood of defeating the Kearsarge in a one-on-one battle. Kell noted that the ships were of similar strength with the Union ships battery, was slightly heavier at 430 lbs. of shot to Alabama’s 360 lbs. The major issue was that after two years of cruising, Alabama’s gunpowder and explosive shells may have deteriorated. The two other alternatives were that they could try to slip past Kearsarge in a nighttime dash; however, the odds were not in his favor to make this attempt. He could also put the ship into drydock, pay the crew off, and let the Alabama rot away. Semmes determined that the Alabama deserved better and decided to fight it out with the Kearsarge. Semmes was also a brawler and always looked for a fight where he could, as seen in his sinking of USS Hatteras and his desire to take on USS Wyoming in the Indian Ocean. Semmes wanted to prove that Alabama was indeed a ship of war and not a pirate, and he could only do so by challenging Winslow to a duel.
Capt. Semmes sent a message to Capt. Winslow stating that he intended to fight the Kearsarge as soon as possible through diplomatic channels. The message read, “my intention is to fight the Kearsarge as soon as I can make the necessary arrangements. I hope that these will not detain more than to-morrow or the morrow morning at the farthest. I beg she will not depart until I am ready to go out. I have the honor to be Your obedient servant, R. Semmes, Captain.”
Word was sent out near and far that a great battle was going to happen off the coast of Cherbourg, and on Sunday, June 19, 1864, the morning was clear without a cloud in the sky. Hundreds of people came from Paris and elsewhere knowing that a historic battle would soon be fought before them, and they wished to witness history in the making.
John Lancaster, the owner of the steam yacht Deerhound, offered his children the opportunity to go to church or view the battle…they chose the battle. Other smaller boats and various French vessels accompanied Alabama during its voyage out of Cherbourg harbor. Artist Edouard Manet was on one of those boats to paint the battle. As Alabama steamed past the French ship Napoleon, the ship’s band played ‘Dixie’ to encourage Alabama on to its destiny.
The Kearsarge waited seven miles off the coast to ensure the fight was not in French territorial waters. The Alabama opened fire first with a starboard broadside. All her shots missed their mark, and the Kearsarge escaped this first barrage. Each Captain tried to position their ship to obtain the best advantage. They began to steam in concentric, spiraling circles moving southwest. Each ship attempted to cross in front of the other to deliver a deadly raking shot. Neither warship could achieve that goal.
At 900 yards, the Kearsarge opened fire, and their aim was true. This first barrage had an immediate effect, but no real damage had been delivered. Back and forth, the barrage continued, with the Alabama getting the short end of the stick. Capt. Semmes was surprised to watch many shells strike the Kearsarge and simply bounced off the ship. He then realized what the Captain of the Kearsarge had done to bolster his ship. As the outer planks were being blown off the side of the ship, the elaborate chainmail came into view.
After around one hour and ten minutes, Semmes realized the fate of his crew and ship were sealed, and Winslow’s addition of this disguised armor played a decisive role in his ship’s victory.
Many Confederate sailors were strewn about the deck dead, dying, or badly wounded. Semmes recalled, “our ship was deemed to be in a sinking condition, the enemy’s shells having exploded in our side, and between decks, opening large apertures through which the water rushed with great rapidity.”
Semmes tried to save his ship by sailing it toward the French coast. Yet, he could do nothing as Alabama was sinking too fast, and her boiler fires had been extinguished by the rising sea. Semmes lowered the cruiser’s flag and sent a boat to Kearsarge for assistance.
Semmes stated that when he lowered Alabama’s flag and sent a boat to Kearsarge requesting help, Winslow’s ship continued firing into the sinking raider from a distance of four hundred yards. Semmes noted with disdain that “Kearsarge fired upon me five times after my colors had been struck. It is charitable to suppose that a ship of a Christian nation could not have done this intentionally.” “When the object was apparent, the Kearsarge was steered across the bow of the Alabama for a raking fire; but, before reaching this point, Alabama struck.” Winslow reported and added, “Uncertain whether Captain Semmes was not using some ruse, the Kearsarge stopped.” The Alabama’s bow then rose straight up into the air and vanished beneath the English Channel.
After the battle, Raphael Semmes was asked about the tactic used by the Kearsarge by placing large iron chains along its hull and then covering it with planking to hide this advantage. Semmes noted that had he known that the Kearsarge was virtually an ironclad, he would not have challenged the Federal warship to a duel.
When the boat from the Alabama finally came alongside the Union ship, the sailors aboard asked for help to rescue some of their fellow sailors aboard the Alabama. Several French boats, as well as boats from Kearsarge, picked up survivors to become POWs. One French pilot rescued six men and returned them to Cherbourg. Winslow asked Deerhound to help, and the steam yacht became very active, picking up survivors.
The Deerhound collected officers and crew of the Alabama, including Raphael Semmes. John Lancaster delivered them to Southampton. Winslow was enraged by this action, writing: “I could not believe that the commander of that vessel could be guilty of so disgraceful an act as taking prisoners off.” Winslow could not do anything about Deerhound’s actions.
In all, the USS Kearsarge suffered just three wounded during this engagement: James Macbeth, John Dempsey, and William Gowin, who later succumbed to his injuries. Dempsey had his right arm amputated. Abord the Alabama, nine were killed, 10 drowned, and 21 were wounded. Semmes was injured in the hand. Two drowned crew members were Ship’s Boy David Henry White and Fireman Shilland. They were listed as “colored slaves” on Alabama’s muster roll. Ironically, two enslaved men fighting for the South against the North were killed in European waters less than ten months before the end of the war.
The CSS Alabama was a ship launched from England, sailed three-quarters of the way around the world, and inflicted a significant toll on the United States shipping during the Civil War. Yet this ship never saw any port in the South for which it was fighting. The U.S. spared no expense to see that the Alabama was sent to the bottom of the sea, and in the end, that’s what happened. The Alabama did succeed at drawing ships away from the blockading of the South, but the U.S. Navy was capable of maintaining the blockade and attacking these rogue ships used by the South.
When the Alabama was sunk, it seems that the story of this ship also disappeared from history, along with the fact that the Confederates States used foreign businesses to supply its navel needs during the Civil War. The extent of this help was just staggering, and this aid probably prolonged the war to an extent.
The ironic thing about this story is that Capt. Semmes was incensed by the lack of honor in his words, by using deception to draw the Alabama into an unfair fight. Likewise, Capt. John Winslow didn’t like the tactics of the Alabama by portraying itself as a merchant ship and sailing close to unsuspecting ships and then attacking. So, who is right and who is wrong? I guess it depends on who’s ship is being blowen out of the water.
Well, everyone here at the acorn hoped you enjoyed this tail from yesteryear, and we can’t wait until we meet again.