The USS Kearsarge was commissioned in 1862 as part of the Civil War’s emergency shipbuilding campaign. As soon as the ship was constructed, she was deployed to the European waters where she searched for Confederate raiders for three years. In June of 1864, Kearsarge found the CSS Alabama in France, where she had gone for repair. Together, they fought one of the most memorable naval battles off Cherbourg that only lasted about an hour. In that hour, Kearsarge defeated the Alabama with its superior arsenal, sinking the ship.
Kearsarge was assigned to other search and intercept missions until the Civil War ended. She remained in the same area until the middle of 1866 when she was decommissioned for a short time. In 1868, Kearsarge was returned to active service, and was sent to South America’s Pacific Coast. Then, she cruised to Australia and returned to Peru, followed by a trip to Hawaii and then California.
In 1870, she was again decommissioned and returned to duty within a matter of years. It was in 1888 that the ship was wrecked on the Roncador Reef during a cruise from Haiti to Nicaragua. Salvage efforts were not effective, and she was stricken from the Navy list shortly thereafter.