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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

USS Kearsarge (I)

Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons

Civil War Medal
Personnel Awards

Medal of Honor - See below Seaman Joachim Pease, USN

Mohican Class Screw Sloop of War:

Laid down, date unknown, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME.

Launched, 11 September 1861

Commissioned USS Kearsarge, 24 January 1862, CAPT. Charles W. Pickering in command

During the Civil War USS Kearsarge participated in the following:

Participated in the blockade of Confederate raider CSS Sumter at Gibraltar in February 1862

Defeated CSS Alabama off the coast of France, 19 June 1864

Decommissioned, 26 November 1864, at Boston for repairs

Recommissioned, 1 April 1865

Sailed for the coast of Spain in a failed attempt to intercept the Confederate ram CSS Stonewall

Decommissioned, 14 August 1866, at Boston Navy Yard

Recommissioned, 16 January 1868 for service in the South Pacific at Valparaiso, Chile, looking out for American commercial interests along the South American coast

Sailed, 17 April 1869, for the Marquesas, Society, Samoa and Fiji Islands to watch over American commercial interests

Resumed duties on the South Pacific Station, at Calao, Peru, 21 July 1870

Decommissioned, 11 October 1870, at Mare Island Navy Yard

Recommissioned, 8 December 1873, for duty on the Asiatic Station, protecting citizens and commerce in China, Japan and the Philippines

Decommissioned, 15 January 1878, at Portsmouth, N.H.

Recommissioned, 15 May 1879, for duty in the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and coast of Panama

Cruised the Mediterranean, Northern European waters, and along the coast of Africa, from 21 August 1883 until 12 November 1886

Decommissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard, N. H., 1 December 1886

Recommissioned, 2 November 1888, to protect American interests in the West Indies, off Venezuela, and along the Central Americas.

Departing Haiti, 30 January 1894, for Bluefields, Nicaragua, Kearsarge was wrecked on Roncador Reef off Central America, 2 February 1894. Her officers and crew safely made it ashore.

Congress appropriated $45,000 to raise Kearsarge and tow her home; but a salvage team of the Boston Towboat Co. found that she could not be raised

Kearsarge was struck from the Navy List in 1894

Specifications:
Displacement 1,550 t.
Length 201' 4"
Beam 33' 10"
Depth unknown
Draft 14' 3"
Speed 11 kts
Complement 163

Armament
As Built
two 11" smoothbores
four 32-pdr/42s
1864 - added
one 30-pdr muzzle loading rifle
one 12-pdr smoothbore
1873
two 11" smoothbores
four 9" smoothbores
two 20-pdr muzzle loading rifles

Propulsion

two horizontal back-acting engines (54" x 2' 6"), 2 boilers; IHP 842 = 11 kts

single propeller

Click On Image For Full Size Image	Size	Image Description	Contributed By
	125k	Pen and ink drawing of USS Kearsarge by R.G. Skerrett, circa 1900, depicting the ship as she appeared during the Civil War. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 52026.	Robert Hurst
	234k	"Steam Sloop of War Kearsarge" From Louis Prang's "Vessels and Marine Views, 3 different sets" 19th Century / 1800's" Louis Prang & Co. Lithography, Boston.	Tommy Trampp
	112k	USS Kearsarge, USS Tuscarora and CSS Sumter at Gibraltar. Artwork published in "Service Afloat: or, the Remarkable Career of the Confederate Cruisers Sumter and Alabama" ..., by Admiral Raphael Semmes, CSN, 1887. It depicts the *Tuscarora* and *Kearsarge* keeping watch on the Confederate cruiser *Sumter, on 12 April 1862. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 59410*	Robert Hurst
	192k	"Pinhole" lens photos of USS Kearsarge at anchor, date and location unknown.	Jonathan Eno
	176k		Jonathan Eno
	84k	USS Kearsarge. Drawing made by Midshipman Edward E. Preble, while at Fayal, Azores, opposite Mount Pico, in 1864, a few months before the battle with CSS Alabama. Preble was Navigating Officer during that action. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 52024. Courtesy of Mrs. J.E. Palmer, from the collection of Surgeon General John Mills Browne, 1937.	Robert Hurst
	368k	The duel off Cherbourg, France between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama, 19 June 1864. The *Alabama* sinking. "The Illustrated London News" June 24, 1864.	Tommy Trampp
	86k	Painting by Xanthus Smith, 1922, depicting CSS Alabama sinking, at left, after her fight with the USS Kearsarge (seen at right). US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # K-29827 (Color) . Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	855k	Oil on canvas painting by Edouard Monet (1832-1883) of the battle between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama, off Cherbourg, France, 19 June 1864. Image courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art/Bridgeman Art Library.	Robert Hurst
	153k	"USS Kearsarge vs. CSS Alabama, 19 June 1864". Line engraving published in the Illustrated London News, 2 July 1864, depicting an early stage in the battle. *Kearsarge* is on the left, with CSS Alabama in the right distance. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 65736.	Robert Hurst
098617652	354k	"THE NAVAL CONTEST OFF CHERBOURG, BETWEEN THE "ALABAMA" AND THE "KEARSARGE," JUNE 19, 1864" "The British pirate ship *Alabama* has been sunk by the American ship of war *Kearsarge. The action took place off Cherbourg harbor on the morning of June 19, 1864, beginning about eleven o'clock and lasting more than an hour. The armament of the Alabama* is reported by various authorities to have been three heavy rifled guns, with eight broadside 32-pounders; that of the *Kearsarge* two eleven-inch shell-guns, four 32-pounders, and two smaller guns. The crew of the >b?>i>Kearsarge is said by the same authorities to have been one hundred and fifty that of the *Alabama* about the same number. The *Alabama* opened the fight by a single longrange shot at two thousand yards, the *Kearsarge* reserving her fire. The vessels sailed around each other in circles seven times, and the fighting was mainly done at the distance of a quarter of a mile. After the exchange of about a hundred and fifty rounds from the *Alabama* and a hundred from the , the pirate ship slacked fire, and seemed to be making sail for the shore, which was about nine miles distant. At half-past twelve she was in a sinking and disabled state. The English yacht *Deerhound, which had been hovering near during the action, immediately made toward the Alabama, saving about forty men, including SEMMES and thirteen officers. Of the rest of her crew eight were killed, seventeen wounded, and sixty-eight captured. The Kearsarge* sustained very little damage, and only three of her crew were wounded. She did not lose a man. Thus, as was fitting, it appears that the Captain of the *Alabama* was saved by a party of his British abettors, who doubtless came out for that purpose. Others invited him to a public dinner at Southampton, which he declined, and went to Paris to make his dismal report to the rebel emissaries there. The English story that the yacht *Deerhound* saved him at the request of the Captain of the *Kearsarge* is a malignant libel upon the character of that officer. No man who has the honor of the navy at heart will easily suppose that an American captain would connive at the escape from just punishment of a buccaneer whose sole business has been to prey upon defenseless ships and burn them, and who has done more than any other man to drive American vessels from the ocean and destroy American commerce. But the great fact remains that the British pirate ship, built by British hands in a British yard, manned by British sailors, paid for by British money, encouraged by British sympathy, and cheered by British lungs, as she sailed from a British port, has been destroyed in the British Channel, and under the noses of British sympathizers, by the brave Jack tars who fight under and for the American flag. " Built in the eclipse and rigged with curses dark" she has gone down to her own place. May the Rebellion, of which she was a fitting instrument, soon follow her. Harper's Weekly 16 July 1864.	Tommy Trampp
	118k	Louis Prang Original Aquarelle Print "Battle Of USS Kearsarge & CSS Alabama", 1867.	Tommy Trampp
098617653	172k	Sketch, "Fighting in a Circle" depicts the battle between USS Kearsarge and CSS Alabama on 19 June 1864. 1888 Civil War Print Sketch from a Century Company New York Publication.	Tommy Trampp
098617654	202k	Sketch depicting a boat from CSS Alabama coming alongside USS Kearsarge to announce the surrender and to ask for assistance. on 19 June 1864. 1888 Civil War Print Sketch from a Century Company New York Publication.	Tommy Trampp
	135k	CAPT. John Ancrum Winslow (later RADM) commanded USS Kearsarge in defeating CSS Alabama off the coast of France, 19 June 1864.	Tommy Trampp
	161k	Piece of the USS Kearsarge's pennant she was flying when defeating CSS Alabama off the coast of France, 19 June 1864. Presented to Martin Hussey by the daughter of RADM Winslow.	Tommy Trampp
	38k	USS Kearsarge at anchor, circa 1860s, location unknown.	Robert Hurst
	512k	USS Kearsarge Ship's officers pose on deck, at Cherbourg, France, soon after her 19 June 1864 victory over CSS Alabama. Her Commanding Officer, Captain John A. Winslow, is 3rd from left, wearing a uniform of the 1862 pattern. Other officers are generally dressed in uniforms of 1863-64 types. View looks aft on the port side. At left is Kearsarge's after XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun, with its training tracks on the deck alongside. Those present are (from left to right): Chief Engineer William H. Cushman; Surgeon John M. Browne; Captain John A. Winslow; Acting Master's Mate Ezra Bartlett; Paymaster's Clerk Daniel B. Sargent; Lieutenant Commander James S. Thornton, Executive Officer; 2nd Assistant Engineer William H. Badlam; 3rd Assistant Engineer Henry McConnell; Acting Master James R. Wheeler; Boatswain James C. Walton; 3rd Assistant Engineer Sidney L. Smith; Gunner Franklin A. Graham; Acting Master's Mate Charles C. Danforth; Acting Master Eben M. Stoddard; 3rd Assistant Engineer Frederick L. Miller; and Paymaster Joseph A. Smith. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 61669. The original glass negative is held by the Library of Congress.	Bill Gonyo
	109k	Photos of USS Kearsarge and crew taken in June 1864 after the battle with CSS Alabama by Francois Rondin, a photographer in Cherbourg, France.	Bill Gonyo
	244k
	176k
	68k	USS Kearsarge off Portsmouth, N. H., shortly after her return from European waters in 1864. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 78638 Donated by Hamilton Cochran, 1974.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	73k	Halftone reproduction of a photograph of USS Kearsarge taken in late 1864, upon the ship's return to the United States from European waters. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52023	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	79k	Lithograph after a drawing by Joseph L. Jones, circa 1877-1880 depicting a Naval Review in Hampton-Roads, VA. dedicated to Secretary of the Navy Richard W. Thompson. Ships present include (from left): USS Marion, USS Tallapoosa (flying the Secretary of the Navy's Flag), USS Constitution, USS Kearsarge, USS Saratoga, USS Powhatan, USS Portsmouth and USS Minnesota. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 61193. Courtesy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.	Robert Hurst
	153k	Pen and ink drawing by Samuel Ward Stanton depicting USS Kearsarge under full sail, rigged as a ship, as she was during most of the 1870s and 1880s. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 65471.	Robert Hurst
	67k	Watercolor of USS Kearsarge by Clary Ray, circa the 1890s, as she appeared during the Civil War. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # KN-571 (Color). Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	1474k	This albumen view of the officer's and crew on board USS Kearsarge circa 1869 somewhere in the South Pacific. While this image is apparently depicted in "Images of War", Vol VI, P.427, it is actually identified on the verso as having been taken between 17 April and 31 October 1869 off either New South Wales or New Zealand. This would put it at the time she sailed, 17 April 1869, for the Marquesas, Society, Samoa and Fiji Islands to watch over American commercial interests. The image with the ships officer's standing in the foreground and enlisted men, along with two Marines, in the background. A dog is lying on the deck next to Commander James S. Thornton, commanding officer of the *Kearsarge*. He just returned to active duty after five years and eleven months of being unemployed by the Navy. The image from Heritage Auctions (Public Domain) Officers present: CDR. James S. Thornton Surgeon Charles H. Burbank LCDR. John Weidman Paymaster Henry M. Meade LCDR. Charles Vernon (Steve) Gridley 1st Asst. Eng. Sidney Albert Lt. John C. Kennett 2nd Asst. Eng. Burdett C. Gowing Master Abraham B.H. Lillie 2nd Asst. Eng. Edwin T. Phillippi Master Charles S. Sperry 2nd Asst. Eng. Charles F. Purdie Master William T. Swinburne 2nd Asst. Eng. James Wesley Gardner Ens. Willie Swift 2nd Lt. Francis H. Harrington, USMC Ens. William D. Nicholson Boatswain Thomas Bennett Ens. Horace E. Jones	Bill Gonyo
	137k	Photograph of USS Kearsarge E.H. Hart, New York, circa the 1880s. *Kearsarge* is seen as she was in 1879-1886, with ship rig. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 86058.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	90k	View of the waterfront at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, circa 1883. Ships present include USS Kearsarge (left), unidentified steam sloop, and the receiving ship USS Constitution. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 46353.	Robert Hurst
	90k	USS Kearsarge at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, after her 1886-88 overhaul, when her rig was reduced from a ship to a bark. The receiving ship USS Constitution is in the center background. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 86057.	Robert Hurst
	83k	USS Kearsarge in New York Harbor, in about 1890. Her rig had been reduced from a ship to a bark in 1886-88. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 63151.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	81k	USS Kearsarge, oil on canvas, 22" x 36", by an unidentified artist. The painting depicts *Kearsarge* as she was during the 1890s. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # KN-10867 (Color). Painting in the US Naval Academy Museum Collection. Gift of George R. Thompson, 1924.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	119k	USS Kearsarge's crew at their battle stations, shortly after her June 1864 action with CSS Alabama. View looks aft from the forecastle, showing both XI-inch Dahlgren smoothbore cannon trained to starboard, as they were during the fight. Portly officer in the center foreground appears to be Acting Master James R. Wheeler. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52027.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	147k	USS Kearsarge view on deck, looking aft along the starboard side in June 1864. Acting Master James R. Wheeler (left) and Assistant Engineer Sidney L. Smith are standing beside the ship's forward XI-inch pivot gun, which is trained out to starboard, as it was during the action with CSS Alabama on 19 June. Note ammunition for the gun on deck at left, including canister (or a powder charge), shell and grape. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 61670	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	124k	USS Kearsarge view on deck, looking forward along the starboard side in June 1864. Acting Master Eben M. Stoddard (left) and Chief Engineer William H. Cushman are beside the ship's after XI-inch pivot gun, which is trained out to starboard, as it was during the action with CSS Alabama on 19 June. Note ammunition for the gun on deck at left, including grape, shell and what appears to be a powder charge. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 61671	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	154k	USS Kearsarge's personnel of the Engineering Department, circa June 1864. The officer at the right is 3rd Assistant Engineer Sidney L. Smith. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52028	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	140k	USS Kearsarge officers pose by her forward XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun, which is trained to starboard. Taken at Sydney, Australia, circa mid 1869. View looks aft from the forecastle. Identified officers include: Lieutenant Commander Charles V. Gridley (front, far left); Surgeon C.H. Burbank (front, just left of gun muzzle, with full beard); and Commander James S. Thornton, Commanding Officer (front, center, with gun trunnion behind him). Note telescoping smokestack, boiler room cowls turned to port, spare spars stowed along the port side bulwark, and dog on deck in front of the officers. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 92921. Courtesy of Tom Halpin, 1981.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	146k	"The Gun that Sunk the 'Alabama'...". Halftone reproduction of a photograph of USS Kearsarge's after XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun, with ship's officers and the quarter deck beyond, circa the 1870s. This gun has an iron pivot mounting, of a type adopted after the Civil War, and may or may not be the same weapon that was on board the ship at the time of her battle with CSS Alabama in June 1864. Copied from Francis T. Miller's "The Photographic History of the Civil War, Volume VI: The Navies", page 303. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52029	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	105k	USS Kearsarge's after XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun, trained out to port, circa the 1870s. This gun has an iron pivot mounting, of a type adopted after the Civil War. Mounted on the right side of the gun carriage, just behind the gun trunnion, is a plaque bearing the name "Winslow", after Kearsarge's commanding officer in 1864, CAPT. John A. Winslow. The port side ladder to the quarter deck is at the left US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52025	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	63k	USS Kearsarge's XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun on display at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.	Arnold Putnam
	108k	Post card of USS Kearsarge's forward XI-inch Dahlgren pivot gun in action.	Arnold Putnam
	66k	USS Kearsarge off Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., in 1873-74. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 57984 Courtesy of Mrs. J.E. Palmer, from the collection of Surgeon General John Mills Browne, 1937.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	124k	USS Kearsarge undergoing overhaul, at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, in 1878-79 or in 1886-88. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52021	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	76k	USS Kearsarge at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME., between 1879 and 1886, when she was rigged as a ship. The receiving ship USS Constitution is in the center background. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 86060	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	116k	USS Kearsarge at anchor, circa 1880s, location unknown. Photo courtesy Barius Bar from "Warships of The Civil War Navies" by Paul H. Silverstone	Robert Hurst
	63k	USS Kearsarge at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME., circa 1890. USS Vesuvius is in the left background. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 75890	Arnold Putnam and the US Naval History and Heritage Command
	111k	USS Kearsarge anchored off Bath, Maine, in July 1890. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52022	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	74k	USS Kearsarge with her sails partially furled. Note large star decoration on her stern, just above her name. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 51019 Photograph from the A.S. Murray Collection, at the Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, 1963.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	92k	Painting by Yonono, 1950, of USS Kearsarge. This painting was received from *USS Kearsarge* (CVS-33)** in 1970 US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 86317-KN (Color)	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	131k	USS Kearsarge lithograph entitled The Brave Old 'Kearsarge' depicting the ship as she appeared in 1889-94. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 60638..	Robert Hurst
	226k	USS Kearsarge at anchor, circa 1890-94, location unknown. Detroit Publishing Company photo now in the collections of the US Library of Congress	Bill Gonyo
	197k	USS Kearsarge's Winslow gun that helped her defeat the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama during the Civil War. US Library of Congress photo	Bill Gonyo
	150k	An Eleven-inch Dahlgren smoothbore gun in an artillery park, probably at the New York Navy Yard, sometime after the Civil War. Photograph published by E.H. Hart, 1162 Broadway, New York, circa the later 1880s. This gun is presumably one of the two 11" Dahlgrens carried by USS Kearsarge during her battle with CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France, 19 June 1864. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 60958	Robert Hurst
	184k	A section of USS Kearsarge's sternpost, with a shell imbedded in it that had been fired by the CSS Alabama during the battle. This rifle shell is about seven inches in diameter and weighs about 56 pounds. Photograph was taken circa 1960, by which time the sternpost section had been encased in an expanded metal protective covering. By 1972, it was on exhibit at the U.S. Navy Memorial Museum, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # NH 58781	Robert Hurst
	106k	Watercolor by an unidentified artist, depicting USS Kearsarge wrecked on Roncador Reef, in the Caribbean Sea, on 2 February 1894. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 52030. Courtesy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936.	US Naval History and Heritage Command
	78k	A 1970 photograph of U.S. Navy poster of Seaman Joachim Pease, USN,(1842-????). Joachim Pease received the Medal of Honor for his conduct while loader of the No.2 Gun in USS Kearsarge as she battled CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France on 19 June 1864. U.S. History and Heritage Command Center. Photo # NH 103763.	Robert Hurst
098617655	61k	USS Kearsarge - Tanzania Ships Stamps sheet 1999 MNH 19th century sailing ship, Boat, Sea Vessel.	Tommy Trampp