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Summer
1995, Issue 37
Article Abstracts and Supplements
The Saga of CSS Alabama
by Christopher M. Henze
This issue chronicles the adventures of the CSS Alabama,
the Confederacy's deadliest raider, including the discovery of her
wreck off the coast of France and recent salvage efforts. Though the Alabama never
once berthed in a Confederate port, her exploits boosted the morale
of Southerners as she made an epic--and deadly--maritime journey around
the world. During the Alabama's 22-month campaign, her commander,
Captain Raphael Semmes of Mobile and his crew captured or sank 65 Union
merchant vessels at a cost of approximately $6 million to the Union.
Author Christopher Henze, a U. S. diplomat for 25 years, served as
a cultural attache at the American embassy in Paris and acted as liaison
between the French and the American sides in negotiations over ownership
of the Alabama artifacts.
USS Kearsarge: The Last of a Legend
by Eugene Alvarez
A companion piece, this article recounts a little-known story of
the final days of USS Kearsarge, which ran aground in the Caribbean
in 1894. Her captain and navigator were brought up on charges of "inefficiency
in the performance of duty" and "negligence." Both were found guilty.
Ann Hodges and the Hand of Fate
by John C. Hall and Harold Povenmire
Ann Hodges of Sylacauga is the only documented case of a person being injured
by a meteorite. Her remarkable story attracted national media attention. In
Alabama, the publicity focused on a law suit brought by Hodges' landlady, who
claimed that she was the rightful owner of the meteorite. The public sided
with Mrs. Hodges, who told the pres, "I think God intended it for me. After
all, it hit me!" Although the landlady won the lawsuit, Hodges, after a modest
private settlement, was able to reclaim the meteorite, which she later donated
to the Alabama Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama. The
8 1/2 pound meteorite remains there today on display. Another 3-3/4 pound fragment
of the same meteorite found by a farmer nearby is on display at the Hall of
Meteorites at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C.
DEPARTMENTS
FROM THE ARCHIVES – "The
Gold Star Book-Personal Memories of Alabamians Who Died in the Great
War" by John S. Clemens
THE NATURE JOURNAL – "Jack (or Jill)-In-The-Pulpit" by L. J. Davenport
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