July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union naval officer’s Autograph Letter Signed by William, 4pp. octavo, “Kearsarge” at Sea, cruising, August 12, 1863, and reads in part: “...I am sitting in my room in my shirt and draweres and endeavoring to write a letter to you. Yesterday we left Fayal for a cruise around the islands. ...There is an English Man of War (the ‘Wrangler’) here and we are going to send a mail by her so I will finish this and improve the opportunity. We expect to go to Europe in a very few days and I hope I shall receive lots of letters when I arrive there. Very likely we may go to France or Portugal...when I go to Gibraltar I will try and get something pretty for you...We have buried two men within the last two weeks, one at sea and the other at Fayal. They had fevers....” Fine condition. From November 1862-March 1863, Kearsarge prepared for her fight with Alabama at Cádiz, then searched for the raider from along the coast of Northern Europe to the Canaries, Madeira, and the Outer Hebrides. Arriving at Cherbourg, France, on June 14 1864, she found Alabama in port where she had gone for repairs after a devastating cruise at the expense of 65 ships of the United States' merchant marine. Kearsarge took up patrol at the harbor's entrance to await Semmes' next move. One hour after she fired her first salvo, Alabama had been reduced to a sinking wreck by Kearsarge's powerful 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore pivot cannons. Semmes struck his colors and sent a boat to Kearsarge with a message of surrender and an appeal for help. Kearsarge rescued the majority of Alabama's survivors, but Semmes and 41 others were picked up by British yacht Deerhound and escaped in her to the United Kingdom.
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