Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-07-20
The Alabama and the Kearsarge.

| interest in Europe. The papers, English
/ French and German are full of it, and little
else was talked of in Paris and London up to
the sailing of the last steamer. There a
great rush to see the hearSa'ye, painters are
making pictures of the fight, officers are ex-
amining the big guns of the Kea1sarye, ladies
are getting relics from the two vessels to at
tach to their watch chains, the subject is
discussed in Parliament and the newspapers,
congratulations pouring in on Captain
WINsLow and his crew.
The New York papers have further letters
from their correspondents, and extracts from
European papers, but we have not room to
copy.
Some new points are brought out. Capt
WINsLow admits and regrets that a shot or
two was fired after the Aloba7aa surrendered
! The mistake from the fact that ten
minutes before the alabama sunk she pulled
down her battle-fag, wEich was white, with
a union-jac and blue stars in the upper cor
ner, and tearing the colors out, ran it up
again white flag, in token of surrender
| The flag looked about as white before the
oolors were torn out after, and he did not
understand that the alabama had surrender
ed till IA boat approached with an officer and
two men. The correspondent of the New
York Times says Capt WINsLow hailed the
officer thus. I" Do you surrender your ship,
?" We do" was the reply; "our ship
| is sinking, and we want to know if you won't
send ysur boats to help save the men ~
g Certainly, SIR" replied Capt WINsLow. At
the same time Capt. WNsLow hailed the En-
glish boat, and asked them twice if they
would not also send their boats, and help to
take off the crew of the alabama. The Off
Ger who had come to surrender the alabama
was also authorized oy Capt WNsLow to aid
in picking up the men. Capt WINsLow, in
view of the fact that the boat had surrender
ed, never doubted for moment but that ev-
erybody engaged in picking up men would
deliver them to him as his prisoners. He
never thought of anybody attempting to run
away under such circumstances, and supposed
the English boat the Deerhososd, like himself,
was going back to Cherbourg.
There were nineteen different nationalities
represented on the alabama, principally Eng
|
One of the crew told the New York Herald
correspondent that the men shipped to make
money, but had not received any prize money
and thought themselves swindled. He did
not think majority would reship in the Con-
federate service.
As near as can be ascertained, the alabama
lost over thirty men killed and wounded Her
crew was one hundred and fifty men and Off
GERS Sixty-seven of these were saved by the
KeorSarge, forty were taken on board the
yacht Dee7Roa0ed, and nine were brought into
Cherbourg in a French pilot boat, leaving
thrty-four unaccounted for.
There are but three things which mar our
pleasure in regard to the destruction of the
alabama First, that SEMMEs should have es-
capped Second that the Deerho1ad was not
sunk the moment it was ascertaned That she
was running away with our lawful prisoners
Third that the crew OF the AlabaQ1a, rescued
- ~ r----a~,1,o. rLo,,ld have been paroled.
For the first no blame be imputed to
Commodore WlNsLow. 1t is better to err on
the side of humanity, and he could not have
supposed that the enemy would take so mean
an advantage of his cIemency in saving their
lives. For the second, Commodore WINS
lows explanation is sufficient for his full JUS
tifcation. He did not fire upon the Deer
hound because he never imagined " that any
one carrying the flag Of the Royal Yacht
, Squadron would act so dishonorably" He
could not know that this pretended British
Yacht was really Confederate tender. We
| bay To hon
or of the Confcderates and their accomplces
In paroling his prisoners because he had not
room to comfortably accommodate them Com
modore WINSTON seems to have acted hastily
and unwisely.
An eye-witnes of the naval fight commune
Gates to the London Daily Neus the following
interesting narrative:
81 regret to sec that some of the London
papers are pcrverting and classifying the facts,
so as to do great injustice to the gallant Off
GERS and men of the Kearsarge.
"The fight began at l l M, and ended
few minutes after u, lasting a little more
than an hour The Alabana fired seventeen
shots at the hearSdrge before the latter fired
a gun. The hearSarge fred one hundred and
seventy three shots. She was struck in the
hull seven or eight times, but has sustained
no important damage and is perfectly ready
| for active service.
''She has crew Of about one hundred and
sixty-fve men, that of the alabama being
one hundred and forty-seven. The Ala5anaa
had eight guns, the kedrSarge only seven
The firing of the alabama was very inaccu-
rate, that of the KearSarge was excellent A
large pivot gun was particularly effective
The Hearsa5geis spoken of as being iron-clad:
she was no more iron-clad than the Ala5anaa
might have been had they taken the precau-
ton. She simply had double row of chains
hanging over Der sides to protect her machin-
cry. Two shots from the alabama struck
these chains, and fell harmlessly into the Wa
ter"
"The Kearsarye picked up sixty three men,
one dead body, and two men who have since
died on board. She also took five officers
Captain Wols2o,o aco1td nor hare all the officers
and men Of tie alabama as prisoners had lie not
placed too much confluence Ia tie honor of On.
Eng3is1anaa1s rho carried tie flag of tie Roval
Yacht Squadron. The Club will be indeliblv
disgraced unless they take measures to repu-
date and condemn the conduct of Mr. John