Episode 39: Seaman Magee of the USS Kearsarge face Captain Semmes and the CSS Alabama at the Battle of Cherbourg

First Person Civil War Podcast

At the Battle of Cherbourg, 19 June 1864, Seaman Magee aboard the USS Kearsarge spotted the CSS Alabama, commanded by CPT Semmes as it departed the safety of Cherbourg Harbor to do battle in the English Channel. While both sloops-of-war were almost evenly matched in terms of cannon, the USS Kearsarge also had an armored hull, which became a deciding factor in the coming engagement.

Sources used for this episode:

Bradlee, Francis B. C. The Kearsarge-Alabama Battle. The Story as told to the writer by James Magee of Marblehead, Seaman on the Kearsarge. Salem: Essex Institute, 1921. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t2c82qw8g&seq=11&view=1up.

Semmes, Raphael. Memoirs of a Service Afloat, During the War Between the States. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co., 1869. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/34827/pg34827-images.html.

Rush, Richard. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Washington: Government Printing Press, 1896. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924051350829&view=1up&seq=9.

17 Medals of Honor issued to the crew of the USS Kearsarge. https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/lists/civil-war-uss-kearsarge-recipients.