Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-08-11
THE KEARsARGE AND THE ALABAMA.


THE KEARsARGE AND THE ALABAMA
The naval duel between the United States steamer
Kearsarge and the Confederate steamer Alabama
appears to have attracted more attention and elicit
ed more discussion in Europe than even in this
country. The scene of the contest, the nationality
OF the ships crews respectively engaged in the
struggle, the English origin and construction of
the vessel ptted against the United States ship,
the romantic incidents of the encounter, and the
close, may perhaps serve somewhat to explain the
vividness of the interest that has been excited by
this naval combat in England and on the Cont
nent.
In evidence at once Of the popular curiosity and
scientific inquiry that has been elected by this dra
matte sea fight enacted in the presence of the Euro
pean world, though taking its origin from the civil
CONFUSION which is shaking this Western Continent
we may point to the fact that the first monograph
on the subject, so far as we aware, has ema-
mated from the British press, in the shape of a
pamphlet written by Mr.. FREDERICK NJ. EDGE, an
States, and who has some knowledge of the pro-
gress We have made in naval architecture and in
the armament of our ships of war.
As our paper oirculates widely among the Off
GERS of the navy we have thought that we should
be doing them professional service by the reno
duction of this treatise which, we may add, will
be equally interesting to the general reader for the
minuteness and exaotitude it brings to the descrp-
tion of this now celebrated trial of arms at sea.
As the name Of the " Kearsarge" is destined to
ISOLATION with the easy triumph she won over the
| Alabama" it may be interesting to state that
| she takes her appellation from mountain OF
that name in New Hampshire, The name, we
have understood, was chosen for her by the wife
of the present Assistant Secretary of the Navy
1t is known that the Navy Department, in seeking
appropriate and characteristic DENOMINATIONS for
the growing liat of our ships, has judicously
drawn on the nomenclature of our mountains, hi,.
and streams, especially such MS are most racv Of
the sol" because still preserving in their names
the traces Of the native Indian dialects Of this
continent,
The Kearsarge, we need not say, is one Of those
vessels of recent construction which have been
made the subject of much banter by portion of
our press whose would-be facetious conductors,
with more Of pleasantly than propriety, have been
in the habit Of calling them Rip Van Wrinkles
tubs" As there is an old proverb which pithily
says, Let those laugh who win" we suppose the
present Secretary of the Navy, in availing himself
of the permission given by this apothcgm, will not
feel particularly called, in view Of such results as
are achieved by hia "tubs," to take any very
serious notice Of the aeers, the gibes, and the
notable scorns' by which certain persons in our
own country have sought to disparage the effec-
tivcness of our navy under its present admins
tration.
When the events Of our gigantic struggle shall
come to be appreciated by the standards of the
impartial historian, it will be found if we mistake
not, that the capture of New Orleans capture
effected by she navy alone-was not only the
greatest achievement of the kind in the annals Of
naval warfare, but that, if the magnitude OF the
conquest is estimated by the cost at which il was
gained, there has been no success so signal and 80
pete in the history Of the war from It's origin
to the present time. And it ia Impossible to over
| estimate the aid which the navy has rendered to
the army in the operations Of the latter, whether
we look to the effectiveness with which il has
sometimes opened the way for OR advancing forces
as in the capture CT fort Henry at the very begin,
ming Of the war, or to the readiness and zeal with
which has sometimes covered their retreat, as on
| the banks Of the Tennessee after tho battle of
Shiloh, and on those of the James after the repuse
| of Gen Mcclellan from Richmond And what nigh
have been the changes in our present situation if
the Monitor had not interposed in the Chick Of
time" to stay the progress Of the Merrimac in the
spring Of 1867 To recur to these familiar topics
is TO revive in every mind lively senso of the
part which the navy has played in the history Of
this most cveutfu war;