The winner of a widely known Civil War naval battle painted from the period by former Navy officer Xanthus Smith, U.S.S. KEARSAGE, a screw-steam cruiser, sails clear of Boston. Sent immediately into conflict in 1863, KEARSAGE blockaded the Confederate Raider SUMTER at the Mediterranean mouth near Gibraltar, forcing the South's ship to be decommissioned from the war effort. She'd follow this under command of Captain John Winslow, in her epic defeat of the Confederate Raider ALABAMA off Cherborg, France. KEARSAGE would fire 173 rounds in the 70 minute battle, with devastating results for the Confederates.
The record of her build is no less impressive. Ordered on an emergency act in 1861, she was among a group that was modeled after the MOHICAN in 1858, and once began in 1861, traveled by marine railcar to Portsmouth on Sept. 11, 1861 and launched four weeks later, on Oct. 5. In all, 14 of the cruisers would be constructed and serve in the conflict.
A wonderful sense of scale and distance is translated in this painting by Xanthus Smith. The wind of the port quarter catches the sails, pushing the regular rhythm of the sea and dispersing the coal-fire smoked upward and away. Warm light catches the sea and the Boston coastal lighthouse, giving a sense of direction for the warship, headed for Europe in her first days. She'd admirably serve American interests until 1895.
