Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-31
NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Few citizens of this country have seen more of the world than George DeWhit- ing, who keeps a modest restaurant on Nineteenth street, near the State Herald office. Although an Englishman by birth. he has long been a naturalized citizen and ready to fight for his adopted coun- try, even against the mother country, as readily as he was thirty-three years ago, when he became one of the dauntless crew of the famous Confederate steam ship Alabama, the "Lioness of the Seas. !"
 MT DeWhiting, referring to clipping from the Boston Republic, which alluded to the Alabama as pirate and to her crew as a motley lot of English convlcts, laughed at the idea. He joined the Ala bama at Liverpool when she first went 1n- to the Confederate service, and served with her until she went down off Cher bourg in the battle with the Kearsarge, and says that if there were any conVlcts on her he never knew 1t. As to her plra- cy, the articles of war were read to the crew as they took the oath of allegiance to the Confederate government OH the Teneriffe islands, and that the eommlS- sions of Captain Semmes and hls oiil- cers were as regular as those or GeneIdl Lee, or, for that matter, as that Of the commander of the Kearsarge or any ofn- cer in the union navy. It is true, says MT. DeWhiting, that the crew or the Alabama were a rough seafaring set, put they were not criminals, and they were not all English by a large majority: They were in truth English, French. Swedes and Americans from the southern states, all her officers being native southerners.
 
 Mr. DeWhiting says he was often or the detail from the Alabama to take pos session of captured ship, olspose o1 the cargo and burn the vessel, and that no goods were taken except as the prop erty of the Confederate government, ana that if any of the crew or the Aiapaileh got any of the property 1t was py pur- chase from the officer authorized to nave charge of them.
 The history of the part borne by the navies of the union and the ConIeueIdcy in their great struggle has not yet been written except in desultory 1asnloh anu by partisan narrators. The work Of the government in publishing all the core spondence and data possible to be oDtsih- ed under the name of 'The Naval ltec- ords of the Rebellion" the first volume of which has just been completed. VIII throw floods of light upon our clVli War that will reveal the pluck and ingenuity of the American people, as the story mas never yet been told. It needs oniy 10 point to the fact that when sumter was fired upon there was not in the soutn shop in which piece of marine macnln- cry cOulQ De IldIuldCtufc'' s ''' months the Confederacy with one ltoh- clad gunboat, had revolutionized the navies of the world and before the war had ended, with coasts blockaded along their entire extent, had sunk fifty-eight naval vessels by torpedoes It needs only to point to these things to show the glorious genius and prowess Of Amerl- cans on water as well as on land.
 
 As to any lingering prejudice of north erners against southern sailors, happily it doesn't exist among the fighting sailors who served the union. The following unique invitation from one of them. just received by MT. DeWhiting. attests the good fellowship that exists between the genuine old yankee and rebel tars:
 Dupont Naval Veteran Association,
 Headquarters. Fort Worth, Tex,
 Dec. 20, 1895. George DeWhiting, Esq, late c. s. s. Ala Dear Sir and Shipmate: The Duponts will have their annual supper and dog watch January Il, to spin yarns, etc If you can spin a yarn, dance hornpipe, whistle a tune or sing song, you are requested to report and draw rations, after first splicing the main brace at four bells in the dog watch.
 Any and all Confederate sailors and officers are invited, especially First Lieu tenant Kell of Atlanta, should any of you be in our neighborhood. Yours fra ternally A. l.. LOWE, Secretary, Late U. S. Ss Wabash, Seminole and Ottawa.