[236] thoroughly iron-coated; this having been done with chain constructed for the purpose, placed Perpendicularly from the rail to the water's edge, the whole covered over by a thin outer planking, which gave no indication of the armor beneath.A letter which we publish this morning from a gentleman just returned from a visit to the Kearsarge, at Cherbourg, states that the “Alabama had eight guns, the Kearsarge only seven ;” and that “the Kearsarge was no more iron-clad than the Alabama might have been, had they taken the precaution. She simply had a double row of chains hanging over her sides to protect her machinery. Two shots from the Alabama struck these chains and fell harmlessly into the water.” Again, as to the number of the respective crews, Mr Mason writes: “She (the Alabama) had, in fast, but one hundred and twenty, all told.” Yet Captain Semmes reports: “Our total loss in killed and wounded is thirty, namely, nine killed, twenty-one wounded. I was fortunate enough myself thus to escape to the shelter of a neutral flag, together with about forty others, all told.” A correspondent who had just visited the Kearsarge, at Cherbourg, reports: “The Kearsarge picked up sixty-three men, one dead body, and two who died afterward on board. She also took five officers.” So that one hundred and thirty (officers and men) are actually accounted for as belonging to the Alabama, instead of Mr. Mason's one hundred and twenty “all told.” Captain Semmes accuses the Kearsarge of having fired upon the Alabama five times after her colors had been struck. No mention of this prodigious inhumanity is made by Mr. Lancaster, the owner of the Deerhound, who was within three hundred yards at the close of the action. The following is the account referred to:
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