he _Alabama_. The history of our navy is full of such strange
occurrences. When the furnace blast of secession swept over the country,
the most intimate friends--in many cases brothers--became the deadliest
of enemies. For a time two flags were flung to the breeze in the United
States, and the men who fought under each were among the bravest of the
brave, for they were all _Americans_.

In 1855 Winslow was made a commander and was engaged in various duties
until the breaking out of the Civil War. He hurried to Washington and
applied for active service. Captain Foote was busy fitting out a
flotilla at St. Louis, and Winslow was sent to join him. The work
involved great labor and difficulty, and Winslow's aid was invaluable,
although far from congenial. The task of blazing away at the guerrillas
in the bushes and woods along shore, of raking the muddy rivers and
streams for torpedoes, and of managing the awkward, nondescript craft,
was not to the liking of the naval officer, accustomed to the free air
of the deep, blue ocean. Finally his request to be transferred to sea
service was granted, and in the early part of 1863 he was placed in
command of the _Kearsarge_.

This sloop of war had a crew of 163 men, carried two 11-inch pivot guns,
four short 32-pounders and one rifled 30-pounder, the total shot weight
of the seven guns being 430 pounds. In this place it may be well to give
the statistics of the _Alabama_, since the two vessels were so
intimately associated in history. The Confederate cruiser carried one
100-pounder Blakely gun, one 8-inch shell gun and six long 32-pounders,
the eight guns having a total of 360 pounds shot weight, while the crew
consisted of 149 men, of mixed nationalities, nearly all of them being
Englishmen.

England at that time was less friendly to the United States than she
has since become, and she gave most unfair help to the Southern
Confederacy by aiding to fit out and man cruisers for it. When the war
was over she was compelled to pay a good round sum for her dishonest
course, and was taught a lesson she is not likely soon to forget. These
cruisers wrought immense havoc among our shipping, and Commander Winslow
was sent into European waters in quest of them. He was specially anxious
to meet the _Florida_, and followed her from the coast of South America
to that of England and France. The governments of those two countries
threw every possible obstacle in his way. The French pilots were
f