Rear Admiral John Ancrum Winslow
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Winslow was in command of USS Kearsarge during her historic action
with CSS Alabama off the French coast.
1811-1873
Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, Winslow became a midshipman in
1827. While serving at Tabasco during the Mexican-American War, he
was commended for gallantry in action by Commodore Matthew Perry.
The outbreak of the Civil War found Winslow serving ashore as
commanding officer of the 2d Lighthouse District. After Flag Officer
Andrew H. Foote relieved Commander John Rodgers in command of the
Western Flotilla, he requested that Winslow be sent west to assist
him as executive officer. At Cairo, Illinois, Winslow labored to fit
out and man gunboats for service on the Mississippi River and its
tributaries. In October 1861, he assumed command of Benton at St.
Louis, Missouri. As that deep-draft gunboat was steaming down river
to Cairo, she ran aground on a sandbar. While attempting to refloat
the ship, Winslow was injured by a flying chain link and forced to
return home late in the year to recover. When he was able to return
to duty in the summer of 1862, Winslow was given comparatively minor
assignments. He contracted malaria, became discontented, and asked to
be reassigned to other duty.
Detached from the Mississippi Squadron, Winslow returned to his home
in Roxbury, Massachusetts, early in November and was confined to bed
there for a month attempting to regain his health. On 5 December,
orders arrived directing him to proceed via New York to the Azores
where he was to assume command of screw sloop Kearsarge. Two days
later, he went to New York where he embarked in Vanderbilt for
passage to Fayal. However, when he reached that island on Christmas
Eve, he found that Kearsarge had sailed to Spain for repairs; and he
was forced to remain at Fayal until spring. When the screw sloop
finally returned early in April 1863, he assumed command.
In Kearsarge, he cruised among the Azores seeking Confederate
commerce raider Alabama until autumn when he shifted to European
waters. At Ferrol, Spain, Winslow learned that CSS Florida, was at
Brest, France, undergoing overhaul; and he promptly sailed for that
port to prevent her from slipping out to sea again. While keeping
track of the progress of the repair work on the Southern warship
through spies, he also made runs along the coast of western Europe,
checking on rumors of other Confederate raiders in the area.
In January 1864, Kearsarge returned to Cadiz for naval stores and
repairs; and, while she was away from Brest, Florida put to sea on 18
February. When Kearsarge returned and learned that the quarry had
escaped, she shifted to Calais, France, where CSS Rappahannock was
moored. On 12 June, Winslow received a telegram informing him that
Alabama was at Cherbourg. He hastened there in Kearsarge and, on 19
June, in an epic battle off that port, won a complete victory which
gained him promotion to commodore.
Advanced to rear admiral in 1870, Winslow commanded the Pacific Fleet
from that year to 1872. Shortly after his retirement, he died at
Boston.
Two ships in the United States Navy have been named USS Winslow for
him. A third Winslow honored him and his second cousin, Admiral
Cameron McRae Winslow.
