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James Russell Soley, Professor U. S. Navy, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.1, The blockade and the cruisers (ed. Clement Anselm Evans), Chapter 7: (search)
and the Alabama edging around, and keeping only her broadside exposed. The crew of the Alabama had had little practice in firing at a target, having been compelled to husband their ammunition; and the warfare in which they had been engaged for eighteen months not being of a kind that called for expertness in gunnery. Their firing at the beginning was rapid and wild, though it became steadier toward the close. The crew of the Kearsarge, on the other hand, under the thorough training of Thornton, her efficient executive, made excellent practice, firing with deliberateness and precision. They had been instructed to point the heavy guns rather below than above the water-line, leaving it to the 32-pounders to sweep the decks. The two Xi-inch guns, and especially the after gun, played havoc with the enemy. The two ships gradually neared in their revolutions, until they were only five or six hundred yards apart. At this distance, the 100-pounder rifle of that day was no match for th