The importance of the engagement between the United States Sloop-of-war, Kearsarge, and the Confederate Privateer, Alabama, cannot be estimated by the size of the two vessels. The conflict off Cherbourg on Sunday, the 19th of June, was the first decisive engagement between shipping propelled by steam, and the first test of the merits of modern naval artillery. It was, moreover, a contest for superiority between the ordnance of Europe and America, whilst the result furnishes us with data wherefro

LETTER OF CAPTAIN JOHN A. WINSLOW.   “ U. S. S. S. ‘Kearsarge,’ Off Dover , July 13, 1864 . “ My Dear Sir —I have read the proof-sheet of your pamphlet, entitled ‘The Alabama and the Kearsarge. An Account of the Naval Engagement in the British Channel on Sunday, June 19, 1864.’ I can fully endorse the pamphlet as giving a fair, unvarnished statement of all the facts both prior and subsequent to the engagement. “With my best wishes, I remain, with feelings of obligation, very truly yours, “ John