It has frequently been asserted that the major portion of the Northern
armies is composed of foreigners, and the same statement is made in
reference to the crews of the American Navy. The report got abroad in
Cherbourg that the victory of the Kearsarge was due to her having taken on
board a number of French gunners at Brest; and an admiral of the French
Navy asked me in perfectly good faith whether it were not the fact. It
will not, therefore, be out of place to give the names and nationalities
of the officers and crew on board the Kearsarge during her action with the
Alabama.