The Alabama has been sunk. Captain Semmes, either prompted by
a generous sense of the obligation to meet the first armed vessel which challenged him, or by a miscalculation of his own strength, on Sunday steamed out of Cherbourg to meet the United States sloop of war the Kearsage. The accounts of the strength of the two vessels aro very contradictory, but it would appear that both are a little over 1,000 tons in measurement, that the Kear- sage had " a double row of chainshanging over her sides to protect her machinery," that the advantage in men was slightly on the side of the Alabama, that she had eight guns, and the Kearsage seven, but that the metal of the latter was a little the heavier. Captain Semmes had in Cherbourg threatened to board, but the Kearsage was too well handled, the fight was one of artillery, and in an hour the Northern commander, Captain Winslow, had the satisfaction of seeing the side of the Alabama torn open. Captain Semmes fought on gallantly till the vessel began to sink, placed his men in boats, hauled down his flag, and leaped into the sea, where he was picked up by an English yacht commanded and owned by Mr. Lancaster, which carried him to Southampton. A great deal of feeling is displayed by Americans at this escape, but Captain Winslow signalled the yacht to pick him up, and once on the deck of an English vessel his surrender except by order of a Court was of course impossible.
