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Kearsarge and Alabama

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to England for the purpose, if it should be thought desirable. I have recently seen two of the largest Cotton Spinners of America and am able to give you assurance of an effective co-operation on their part with any judicious movement to direct free laborers to increase cotton production in America. If you should think it well to send an agent to examine the regions available for this purpose, as I would venture to earnestly recommend, it would give me pleasure to accompany him upon the journey, and to assist in obtaining all desirable information. It would be best to leave New York in September, and, as most of the country to be examined would have to be traversed on horseback, three months time should be allowed for the journey. The expenses of the tour need not exceed £200, and my personal services would be gratuitous to your association. It is desirable that this subject should not at present be publicly discussed.

2. Kearsarge and Alabama: French Official Report, 1864

The following papers, for which we are indebted to Mr. Waldo G. Leland, were found by him in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris (Manuscrits Français, Nouvelles Acquisitions, 9466, ff. 95–98). They are addressed to the préfet maritime of Cherbourg, Vice-Admiral Dupouy, by the captain of the Couronne, a French ironclad then stationed there and present at the fight between the Kearsarge and the Alabama on June 19, 1864. The report has a value, as adding, to the original sources already known, Union, Confederate, and British, a professional account by an eyewitness who was an experienced naval officer of a neutral nation, and whose function it was to escort the Alabama outside the three-mile limit and in a sense to supervise the combat.

I. Récit du Combat entre le Kerseage et l'Alabama.

Frégate Cuirassée La Couronne

Cherbourg, le 19 juin, 1864.⁠

Amiral,

Conformément à vos ordres j'ai allumé les feux en même temps que le bâtiment conféderé Alabama. À 7h. 50 nous avions de la pression. Le bâtiment fédéral Kerseage restait dans le N. E. à très grande distance. A 9h. 45 l'Alabama a appareillé et la Couronne filé son corps mort et l'a suivi à la distance prescrite. Dès que ce bâtiment a été en dehors des eaux territoriales je me suis dirigé immédiatement sur la rade et j'ai repris le mouillage que j'occupais avant mon départ.

Nous avons suivi de la mâture les mouvements des deux bâtiments qui se trouvaient très au large. On ne distinguait pas bien leurs mouvements, lorsque tout-à-coup on m'a prévu que l'on croyait avoir vu un des deux bâtiments couler bas; on distinguait sur les lieux du sinistre une très grande réunion de bâtiments et de bâteaux du port. Je me suis empresse de vous transmettre cette information, mais à cause de la distance où se trouvaient les combattants et de l'état brumeux du temps
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