The Battle of Cherbourg was the second most famous naval battle of the Civil War. Second only to the Monitor versus the Merrimack. It marked the end of the most feared commerce raider, the CSS Alabama. The Alabama had been built in British shipyard and was sold to the Confederacy. Command was given to Capt. Raphael Semmes and he recruited a motley crew of mostly British tars. Semmes was not a privateer. Instead, his goal was to destroy Northern merchant shipping to turn public opinion against the war. For two years, the Alabama cruised the seas sinking 65 ships. Most were burned. Significantly, only one of those ships was a warship. The Alabama sank the sidewheeler USS Hatteras off Galveston. The cruises took the ship across the Atlantic, into the Gulf of Mexico, along the coast of Brazil, into the Indian Ocean, and as far as the South China Sea. In 1864, it pulled into Cherbourg, France for a much-needed refit. It had traveled 75,000 miles.
The infamous vessel had been hunted by a dozen Union warships over the years and it was finally caught by the USS Kearsarge, commanded by Capt. John Winslow. It was a fair match-up with the Kearsarge having a slight advantage in gunnery. More importantly, the Kearsarge had fresh powder and shells. And Winslow had fitted his ship with heavy chains covering his sides. Planking covered the “chain mail” so Semmes had no idea his foe was a tough nut to crack. On the morning of June 19, 1864, the Alabama exited the harbor for the showdown. The Battle of Cherbourg had the two sloops-of-war circling each other seven times. It was quantity versus quality as the Rebel ship fired 370 shots and the Yankee a lot less, but better aimed. The decayed quality of the Alabama’s powder frustrated the Alabama’s efforts. At one point a shell that would have destroyed the ship lodged in the Kearsarge, but it failed to explode. Meanwhile, the Alabama took numerous hits below the waterline and began to sink. Before jumping overboard, Semmes defiantly threw his sword into the drink. He then swam to a British yacht that had come to watch and escaped to England. 19 of his men were killed in action or drowned. 21 were wounded and 70 were captured. Winslow lost one man dead and two wounded.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/kearsarge-and-alabama
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/uss-kearsarge-sinks-css-alabama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cherbourg_(1864)
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