USS Kearsarge Cabin Desk of Captain John Winslow

Kearsarge cabin desk was auctioned in 2014, along with with a letter of provenance and several important photographs of Kearsarge veterans.

The 201-foot steam and sail sloop was built in 1861 at Portsmouth, N.H. Navy yard. Named after Mount Kearsarge, N.H., it became famous when in a one-hour-and-20-minute battle on June 19, 1864, off the coast of Cherbourg, France it sank the Alabama, the most successful Confederate Raider of the war. The desk had been in the possession of John J. McAleer III and his family.

Photo of the cabin desk and portrait image of Private John J McAleer, held by Private McAleer's great-grandsons, Andrew McAleer and John McAleer III. I met these fellows in the spring of 2014 in Salem, Mass., and they shared all the history with me.

Check back for future post on the photographs and history.