When Boggs’ native city heard of his gallant conduct it voted him a sword, and the State of New Jersey did the same.  He came North and was appointed to the command of the blockading squadron off Wilmington.  He would have preferred active service, and finally his health broke down under the exposure and fatigue to which he was subjected, and he was compelled to return home to recruit.  Upon his recovery, he was appointed to duty in New York, but the war ended without his having another opportunity to distinguish himself in the service of his country.  He died a few years after the close of hostilities.

CHAPTER XXVI.

John Ancrum Winslow—­His Early Life and Training—­The Famous Battle Between the Kearsarge and Alabama.

A few weeks ago I had as guests at my house two young men who were graduates of the West Point Military Academy in 1889.  One was my son, at present an instructor in the Academy, and the other was E. Eveleth Winslow, of the corps of engineers, who had the honor of being graduated at the head of his class.  During the course of the conversation I asked Captain Winslow whether he was a relative of the late Commodore John Ancrum Winslow, commander of the Kearsarge in her famous fight with the Alabama.

“He was my grandfather,” replied my friend, with a glow of pride.

It was a pleasant bit of information, but it made me realize how the years are passing.  It seems but a short time ago that the country was electrified by the news of the great battle, off Cherbourg, France, which sent to the bottom of the ocean the most destructive cruiser the Southern Confederacy ever launched.  And here was the grandson of the hero of that fight, already thirty years of age, with the hair on his crown growing scant. Tempus fugit indeed.

The name Winslow is a distinguished one in the annals of our country, and especially in Massachusetts, the State from which Captain Winslow hails.  He is the ninth generation from John Winslow, brother of Edward Winslow, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the founder, as may be said, of Plymouth Rock itself.  John A. Winslow, the subject of this sketch, however, was a Southerner by birth, being a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was born November 19, 1811.  His mother belonged to the famous Rhett family of the fiery State of South Carolina.  The father had gone to Wilmington from Boston, to establish a commercial house, four years before the birth of the son, who was sent North to be educated.  At the age of sixteen he entered the navy, and saw a good deal of dangerous service in the extirpation of the West Indian pirates.  The exciting experience was exactly to the liking of young Winslow, whose life more than once was placed in great peril.

After an extended cruise in the Pacific, he returned east in 1833, and was promoted to past midshipman.  His service was of an unimportant character for a number of years, the rank of lieutenant coming to him in 1839.  His conduct was so gallant in the war with Mexico that he was publicly complimented by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, a younger brother of the Lake Erie hero, and given the choice of vessels belonging to the fleet.