Notes From the Firehouse The Annisquam Historical Society

U.S.S Kearsarge

NOVEMBER 2020

David W. Teele Peg Koller Betsey B. Horovitz

Martha Harvey and her cameras didn’t miss much, so we were not too surprised to find several images of a U.S. Navy man-of-war at anchor near the entrance to Gloucester’s outer harbor in 1890. Equally, we were not surprised at the high quality of the photographs. What did catch our attention was the vessel’s name. U.S.S. KEARSARGE

The Navy played a key role in the defeat of the rebel south, but few ships, other than the U.S.S. Monitor, the “tin can on a shingle”, are likely to be recalled to memory now. At the time, and for many decades thereafter, the Kearsarge was both widely known and widely celebrated.

Built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Kittery, and more than 200 feet long, the Kearsarge was officially a “sloop-of-war” and carried both steam power and sails. She pursued the confederate commerce raider Alabama for about two years and destroyed her off Cherbourg, on June 11, 1864. Earning instant fame, she stayed in commission for longer than perhaps otherwise might have been expected. Over the years, there have been three other Navy vessels to carry the honored name. U.S.S. KEARSARGE, 1890 MARTHA HARVEY AHS JH SCAN 037 10x12 GLASS PLATE By way of background, the English government had turned a blind eye to the construction of the Alabama in a Scottish shipyard. Officially neutral, the English hoped to keep southern cotton flowing to English mills. She received her cannon and ammunition in the through the connivance of the government of Portugal, and her crew was largely from Britain. She destroyed about 60 U.S. flagged merchant vessels and sank an outmatched Navy side-wheeler, the U.S.S. Hatteras. The Kearsarge cornered her in Cherbourg; after neutrality law forced her to sail, she quickly met her doom. Manet actually produced two paintings of the battle. After first seeming to surrender, the captain of the Alabama threw his sword into the sea and evaded capture by being picked up by a sympathetic English yachtsman, along with many of his crew. Transported to England, he was showered with honors.

COLORED LITHOGRAPH USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama by L. Prang & Co., LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Theodore Roosevelt’s uncle, James Bulloch, organized the building of the Alabama, as well as providing guns and ammunition for southern blockade runners. He saw to the illegal purchase of smuggled cotton and may have had a hand in the financial support of Lincoln’s assassins.

THE BATTLE OF THE KEARSARGE AND THE ALABAMA EDOUARD MANET 1864 MUSEUM OF ART, PHILADELPHIA John Fifield Bickford, first loader of the Kearsarge’s First Division’s XI-inch pivot gun, was a recipient of the . In recommending Bickford’s appointment as master’s mate, Captain Winslow praised “John F. Bickford, who, during the engagement and from long example and good conduct, and also education, is entitled to this reward.” John settled in Gloucester and married a local lass, Elsie Stockbridge; he rests in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery. For his full fascinating story, we suggest: https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2010/december/i-didnt-feel-excited- mite

JOHN BICKFORD’S GRAVE

KEARSARGE’S FORWARD XI INCH PIVOT GUN IN ACTION

https://archive.org/stream/battlesleadersof04john/battlesleadersof04john#page/ n645/mode/1up

The Kearsarge eventually ran aground on the Roncador Reef or Cay in the Carribean in 1894 and could not be salvaged. Her stern post, with an unexploded shell still embedded, has been preserved at the .

We offered the U.S. Naval Historical Center a digital copy of Martha’s photograph; they are not allowed to accept digital imagery, so we hung onto the plate for the AHS.