famous fight with
the _Alabama_.

"He was my grandfather," replied my friend, with a glow of pride.

It was a pleasant bit of information, but it made me realize how the
years are passing. It seems but a short time ago that the country was
electrified by the news of the great battle, off Cherbourg, France,
which sent to the bottom of the ocean the most destructive cruiser the
Southern Confederacy ever launched. And here was the grandson of the
hero of that fight, already thirty years of age, with the hair on his
crown growing scant. _Tempus fugit_ indeed.

The name Winslow is a distinguished one in the annals of our country,
and especially in Massachusetts, the State from which Captain Winslow
hails. He is the ninth generation from John Winslow, brother of Edward
Winslow, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the founder, as may
be said, of Plymouth Rock itself. John A. Winslow, the subject of this
sketch, however, was a Southerner by birth, being a native of
Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was born November 19, 1811. His
mother belonged to the famous Rhett family of the fiery State of South
Carolina. The father had gone to Wilmington from Boston, to establish a
commercial house, four years before the birth of the son, who was sent
North to be educated. At the age of sixteen he entered the navy, and saw
a good deal of dangerous service in the extirpation of the West Indian
pirates. The exciting experience was exactly to the liking of young
Winslow, whose life more than once was placed in great peril.

After an extended cruise in the Pacific, he returned east in 1833, and
was promoted to past midshipman. His service was of an unimportant
character for a number of years, the rank of lieutenant coming to him
in 1839. His conduct was so gallant in the war with Mexico that he was
publicly complimented by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, a younger brother
of the Lake Erie hero, and given the choice of vessels belonging to the
fleet.

A curious incident is mentioned by his biographer. He went with the
division which set out to capture Tampico, but the city surrendered
without a fight upon the approach of the boats. He remained several
weeks and then went back to the fleet at Vera Cruz. One of the vessels
had been capsized in a squall, and the captain was occupying Winslow's
room, and continued to share it until other arrangements could be made.
The name of this visitor was Raphael Semmes, afterward the commander of
t