The Alabama had been five days in preparation; she had taken in three hundred fifty tons of coal, which brought her down into the water. The Kearsarge had only one hundred twenty tons in; but, as an offset to this, her sheet-chains were stowed outside, stopped up and down, as an additional preventive and protection to her more empty bunkers. The number of the crew of the Kearsarge, including officers and sick men, was one hundred sixty-three, and her battery numbered seven guns - two 11-inch, one 30-pounder rifle, and four light 32-pounder guns. The battery of the Alabama numbered eight guns. In the engagement the Alabama fought seven guns, and the Kearsarge five, both exercising the starboard battery, until the Alabama winded, using her port battery, with one gun, and another, shifted over.
Raphael Semmes
It has been denied that the captain of the Kearsarge sent a challenge to the Alabama. Captain Semmes [Semmes, in this account, speaks of himself in the third person. -ED], indeed, says nothing of it himself. What the Kearsarge did - and with a particular object, there cannot be a doubt - was, as recorded, to enter the breakwater at the east end, and "at about 11 A.M. on Tuesday she passed through the west end without anchoring." These are the words of a French naval captain, who speaks of what he saw. Few will deny that among brave men this would be considered something equivalent to a challenge. It was more than a challenge - it was a defiance. The officer we have quoted adds that "anyone could then see her outside protection."
It is easy to see everything after the event. The Kearsarge looked bulky in her middle section to an inspecting eye; but she was very low in the water, and that she was armed to resist shot and shell it was impossible to discern. It is distinctly averred by the officers of the Alabama that from their vessel the armor of the Kearsarge could not be distinguished. There were many reports abroad that she was protected on her sides in some peculiar way; but all were various and indistinct, and to a practical judgment untrustworthy. Moreover, a year previous to this meeting, the Kearsarge had lain at anchor close under the critical eye of Captain Semmes. He had on that occasion seen that his enemy was not artifically defended. He believes now that the reports of her plating and armor were so much harbor gossip, of which during his cruises he had experienced enough.
Now the Kearsarge was an old enemy, constantly in pursuit, and her appearance produced, as Captain Semmes has written, great excitement on board the Alabama. For two years the officers and men of the Alabama had been homeless, and without a prospect of reaching home. They had been constantly crowded with prisoners, who devoured their provender - of which they never had any but a precarious supply. Their stay in any neutral harbor was necessarily short. They were fortified by the assurance of a mighty service done to their country. They knew that they inflicted tremendous damage upon their giant foe. But their days were wretched - their task was sickening. In addition they read of the reproaches heaped upon them by comfortable shoremen. They were called pirates. The execrations of certain of the French and English and of all the United States press sounded in their cars across the ocean; but from their own country they heard little. The South was a sealed land in comparison with the rest of the world. Opinion spoke loudest in Europe; and though they knew that they were faithfully and gallantly serving their country in her sore need, the absence of any immediate comfort, physical or moral, made them keenly sensitive to virulent criticism.
It was this state of mind through the whole crew which caused the excitement on board the Alabama when the Kearsarge steamed in and out of the breakwater. Now, and at last, our day of action has come! was the thought of every man on board. They trusted for victory; but defeat itself was to be a vindication of their whole career, and they welcomed the chances gladly.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
– Jesus, Matthew 11:28