A shell from the Alabama lodged in the USS Kearsarge's sternpost during epic duel. It failed to explode and cripple the ship. You can see artifact at a Navy museum

Sinking of Alabama, Kearsarge sternpost, Capt. Ralphael Semmes (NHHC)

For about an hour on June 19, 1864, artillery crews on the USS Kearsarge and commerce raider CSS Alabama plugged away at each other, their shells flying wide or impacting just about every conceivable spot on their opponent’s vessel.

The Union warship, protected by heavy chains, had an advantage in the epic duel off Cherbourg, France -- one that was not of its own making: The Rebel ordnance was old and at times unreliable, meaning a shell might not explode. Still, the Alabama brought its fierce reputation to the fight, having captured or burned dozens of vessels on the high seas.

About 30 minutes in, a shell struck the vital sternpost of the USS Kearsarge (photo of encased artifact in 1980, NHHC). It should have been game, set, match in favor of Capt. Raphael Semmes and his sailors. Instead, the round was mostly a dud, failing to explode. The fighting continued and before long, it was game, set and match for the Federals, who sent the CSS Alabama to the bottom.

Today, the shattered sternpost and the intact artillery shell are on display in the “Securing the Seas for Union Victory” exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C. Visitors currently can see the items from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.

I turned to Andy Hall, an author, blogger and Civil War naval expert, to explain the importance of a ship’s sternpost, which is a component at the rear (stern).

“It generally consists of a vertical (more or less), heavy component of timber, iron, or steel. It needs to be especially strong because it is the principal structural component to which many other parts of the stern are attached,” Hall wrote in an email. “Usually, the sternpost is also the attachment point for the rudder that swings left and right to steer the ship as it moves through the water.”

Example of sternpost on CSS Jackson at National Civil War Naval Museum (Picket photo)

"Damage to the sternpost is especially serious, because it is one of the critical elements that gives strength to the hull of the vessel.”

While the speedy Alabama’s shot on the Kearsarge sternpost did impede operations, the crew was able to steer with extra hands at the helm, according to an Encyclopedia of Alabama article.

Hall says if the shell had exploded, it likely would have ended the battle immediately and quite possibly led to the sinking of the Kearsarge, which was commanded by Capt. John Winslow. He theorizes the ordnance hit the Kearsarge around its waterline.

The red box at left shows the location of the Kearsarge's sternpost; click to enlarge

Semmes wrote in his memoir of his bad luck with the 56-pound shell’s percussion cap.

"I lodged a rifled percussion shell near her stern post – where there were no chains -- which failed to explode because of the defect of the cap. If the cap had performed its duty, and exploded the shell, I should have been called upon to save Captain Winslow’s crew from drowning, instead of his being called upon to save mine. On so slight an incident the defect of a percussion cap did the battle hinge.”

Semmes crowed that the sternpost was the only Alabama trophy taken. While that may have been true in 1864, the Naval History and Heritage Command and a team of experts recovered artifacts – including the Alabama’s bell -- from the site in 2002. Semmes was rescued by a British vessel.

Hall, writer of the Dead Confederates blog and author of "Civil War Blockade Running on the Texas Coast," summarized the importance of the duel last year when Case Auctions sold items pertaining to Winslow and the Kearsarge. Among the items sold was a picture frame made from pieces of the sternpost (right, Case Auctions)

“It’s hard for most Americans to appreciate now how momentous this battle was viewed at the time,” Hall told the Picket. “Alabama had roamed the globe unmolested for almost two years, destroying American merchant shipping at will. Dozens of civilian ships were seized or destroyed by Capt. Semmes, causing insurance rates to skyrocket and wreaking financial havoc on ships and ports never within a thousand miles of the Confederate raider.”

While a formidable captain, Winslow thanked “the mercy of God” for his vessel’s fortune.

Legend held that the post was sent upon request to President Abraham Lincoln, but Grant Walker, a curator for the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, Md., said he has been unable to find any mention of Lincoln associated with the sternpost.

“The earliest correspondence we have concerns its transfer in 1924 from the Bureau of Ordnance Museum to the Naval Academy Museum,” says Walker. “It was part of a large transfer of ordnance from Washington to Annapolis that took place in July 1924. I could find no records re: how, when, and from whom the Bureau of Ordnance acquired it.”

One of the documents relating to the sternpost lists it as being among "trophies" kept at the Washington Navy Yard.

Various documents listing Kearsarge sternpost; click to enlarge (U.S. Naval Academy Museum)

Tracie Logan, senior curator at the USNA Museum, said the sternpost has been on loan from the academy to the National Museum of the U.S. Navy for decades.

The National Museum is undergoing an extensive renovation and movement of artifacts, so while the sternpost is still on display and the “Securing the Seas” exhibit exists, access to Building 76 is limited to Saturdays only.

Most of the objects from Alabama that were considered underwater archaeological recovery pieces have been removed from display, says Wesley Schwenk, registrar for the museum in Washington. They are retained in storage for preservation purposes. 

Capt. John Winslow, front right, with Kearsarge crew

Schwenk is involved with an exciting acquisition pertaining to orderly Sgt. Charles T. Young, a Marine who served on two other vessels and the Kearsarge during the Civil War. A native of Massachusetts, Young spent 16 years at sea before being assigned to the Kearsarge.

“Described by his fellow sailors as a garrulous sailor, he kept the crew entertained with his humorous and fantastical tales of past voyages when all other forms of amusement no longer brought pleasure to the rest of the crew,” says Schwenk. “Upon the ship's famed meeting with CSS Alabama at the Battle of Cherbourg on 19 June 1864, he and other Marines of the crew provided cover and assault fire from the ship’s topgallant forecastle.”

For his bravery and protection of his fellow crew members, the Marine Corps commended Young, says the registrar. (Seventeen members of the crew received the Medal of Honor for their valor during the battle with Alabama.) Young was in his mid-50s, an old man by the standard of the armed forces.

Schwenk says the museum received two diaries, not yet transcribed, a cudgel (it is unknown whether Young actually carried it aboard), discharge papers, a service record, letters and a muster roll. There is no known photograph of Young.

Broadside, with detail below, includes Young's name at top right, click to enlarge (George Costopulos Auctioneers)

A 2014 auction of items that belonged to Kearsarge Pvt. John J. McAleer included a fascinating hand-inscribed and decorated broadside listing the officers and crew of the famous warship. Young is listed among three Marine guards.

A Boston Journal newspaper article posted on Findagrave.com indicates Young died in 1872, age 62, in Portsmouth, N.H. He is reportedly buried at Walnut Street Cemetery in Brookline, near his native Boston. I asked Lisa Golden with the city for a photograph of his grave, but she has been unsuccessful thus far in locating it or obtaining more information about Young.

Civil War-era bell passed down by family is back home in Appomattox

After almost 50 years spent in the basement of Ora McCoy’s Appomattox, Va., home, a family bell passed down through five generations has found a new life ringing in history along the East Coast. Originally unearthed for the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in 2015, the bell found its way to other park ceremonies. McCoy’s great-grandparents, Daniel and Phoebe Scruggs, once lived as slaves on the Scruggs family farm in Appomattox. They have owned the bell since the Civil War, passing it from hand to hand until it found its way to McCoy. In September, after a stint at the Fort Monroe National Monument, the bell came home. • Article

A Civil War soldier's grave and his headstone were under a Long Island church. But for years, no one knew exactly where. Now it's time to honor his dedication to congregation and country

Removal of  floor exposed headstone for John Codman Pollitz (Trinity Episcopal)

A Long Island church on June 2 will rededicate the grave of a young Union soldier whose headstone rested beneath the floor of the church for more than a century only to be uncovered last year during a renovation project.

Parishioners at Trinity Episcopal Church in Roslyn, New York, knew that Pvt. John Codman Pollitz’s final resting place was incorporated within the current building during construction in 1906.

But most of them had no idea where; there was no recorded location.

That changed last summer, when the congregation fixed a longtime problem: The floor of the nave had been deteriorating and sinking. During the floor-replacement project, rotting wooden joists were removed and Pollitz’s headstone was exposed; it was lying flat in a crawlspace area.

“My assumption was that the headstone was too high standing up for the crawlspace. I believe they simply laid it down on that same spot” during the 1906 construction, said longtime church property manager Mike Callahan.

Bell was used during soldier's funeral (Courtesy of Trinity Episcopal Church)

The stone indicates Pollitz died at age 19 on Jan. 7, 1863, in New Bern, N.C. The immigrant was serving with the 44^th Massachusetts Infantry, a militia unit, and died following a brief illness. Before he enlisted, the young man served as Trinity’s first Sunday school superintendent.

An expert used a radar device that pinpointed an area that likely held a coffin. The church decided to leave the soldier’s grave alone. “Why disturb it? There is no need to,” said church member Karl Hansen.

The headstone was removed; church leaders are trying to determine where to place it in the nave.

(Courtesy of Trinity Episcopal Church)

According to a June 1914 article in the The New York Times, a dying Pollitz asked comrades to ensure his body was sent to Roslyn, where it was to lie in the shadow of the belfry. “With his army pay he had bought a bell as a gift to the parish, and its arrival and his death were so close together that it was tolled for the first time at his funeral,” the article said.

For decades, the instrument has rested on a stand inside the church, an affixed plaque indicating the soldier’s grave lies beneath the church.

The congregation will dedicate Pollitz’s final resting place following Sunday services. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War will conduct a ceremony. A new plaque marks the spot on the floor under which Pollitz rests.

“He was a member of the church over 100 years ago,” Hansen told the Picket. “He was a founding member. He was a soldier, a veteran. … He served his country.”

Young soldier died during wave of illness

The Pollitz family immigrated from Northern Island in the 1840s. Otto, the patriarch, built two houses and raised his family, according to a local history. The boy taught Sunday school for the Episcopal congregation in Roslyn starting in 1859, a decade before Trinity parish was founded, according to a recent article by the Episcopal News Service.

The congregation worshipped in a chapel, a “dream come true” for Pollitz, according to a 2007 church newsletter.

It’s believed that the young Pollitz was living in Boston and barely 18 when he joined up with the 44^th Massachusetts, ostensibly in summer or fall of 1862. The regiment, which took part in skirmishes and sieges across eastern North Carolina before it was mustered out in June 1863, was in Newberne (New Bern), for several months before its transfer to Plymouth, N.C.

A history of the 44^th Massachusetts detailed disease and illness that stalked the troops during campaigning and at their quarters: Dysentery, malaria, dysentery and meningitis, among others. It recounts the loss of several soldiers, including Pollitz, who served in Company F and died on Jan. 7, 1863.

Construction last summer (Trinity Episcopal Church)

“Having been previously well, he came in from guard in the morning, was sent to the hospital, and died the same afternoon. This sudden fatality naturally produced much consternation in the regiment. Quinine rations were issued as a prophylactic measure, and Surgeon Ware was untiring in his efforts to determine the cause of the epidemic.”

The surgeon said barracks were built near a fetid swamp. Losses to a “fever” accounted for 12 deaths over two months. The New York Times said Pollitz died of “camp fever.” Church members believe it may have been dysentery.

His remains were sent north to Long Island. “Shortly after his burial, February 1, 1863, the bell was taken down and another put in its place. John Pollitz’s bell was inverted, filled with dirt and flowers, and stood by his grave for many years,” the church newsletter states.

The Pollitz grave rests under this new floor marker (Trinity Episcopal Church)

During its brief time in service, Pollitz’ bell was “sweet in tone,” The Times article said. But it was lowered when it gave out a note that indicated it was damaged.

In 1914, the bell was moved and restored after church officials discovered the grave under that floor while investigating a break in the foundation walls, according to The Times. The congregation for 100 years following had only a general sense of the grave’s location.

There was a surprise concerning the bell: “It was struck with a sledge hammer and gave out a sweet, pure, true tone. The conclusion what that is must have been the missing clapper that had been cracked.”

(Courtesy of Trinity Episcopal Church)

Remembering a parish hero

Today, Trinity Episcopal church sees 40 to 50 parishioners and visitors on Sundays, well below the hundreds that attended a half century ago. But members keep true to their calling and remember the generations that worshipped there before.

“It is considered Gatsby country,” Callahan told the Picket, making a reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” Part of the novel refers to "West Egg" and "East Egg" with one setting in Great Neck, not far from Roslyn.

The area is hilly and wooded, with mansions perched next to Hempstead and Manhasset bays.

The Rev. Clark with the Pollitz marker

The Rev. Margaret Peckham Clark took a new assignment recently and supply priests are serving the congregation for the time being.

Neither Hansen nor Callahan are aware of any Pollitz descendants living in the area.

Clark termed Pollitz a child of the parish, according to Callahan.

The grave has “never been recognized or honored in the modern day. We are taking this opportunity to honor his service.”

Update: Read about the June 2 ceremony: 

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2019/06/in-silent-camping-ground-of-dead-sons.html