A curious incident is mentioned by his biographer.  He went with the division which set out to capture Tampico, but the city surrendered without a fight upon the approach of the boats.  He remained several weeks and then went back to the fleet at Vera Cruz.  One of the vessels had been capsized in a squall, and the captain was occupying Winslow’s room, and continued to share it until other arrangements could be made.  The name of this visitor was Raphael Semmes, afterward the commander of the Alabama.  The history of our navy is full of such strange occurrences.  When the furnace blast of secession swept over the country, the most intimate friends—­in many cases brothers—­became the deadliest of enemies.  For a time two flags were flung to the breeze in the United States, and the men who fought under each were among the bravest of the brave, for they were all Americans.

In 1855 Winslow was made a commander and was engaged in various duties until the breaking out of the Civil War.  He hurried to Washington and applied for active service.  Captain Foote was busy fitting out a flotilla at St. Louis, and Winslow was sent to join him.  The work involved great labor and difficulty, and Winslow’s aid was invaluable, although far from congenial.  The task of blazing away at the guerrillas in the bushes and woods along shore, of raking the muddy rivers and streams for torpedoes, and of managing the awkward, nondescript craft, was not to the liking of the naval officer, accustomed to the free air of the deep, blue ocean.  Finally his request to be transferred to sea service was granted, and in the early part of 1863 he was placed in command of the Kearsarge.

This sloop of war had a crew of 163 men, carried two 11-inch pivot guns, four short 32-pounders and one rifled 30-pounder, the total shot weight of the seven guns being 430 pounds.  In this place it may be well to give the statistics of the Alabama, since the two vessels were so intimately associated in history.  The Confederate cruiser carried one 100-pounder Blakely gun, one 8-inch shell gun and six long 32-pounders, the eight guns having a total of 360 pounds shot weight, while the crew consisted of 149 men, of mixed nationalities, nearly all of them being Englishmen.

England at that time was less friendly to the United States than she has since become, and she gave most unfair help to the Southern Confederacy by aiding to fit out and man cruisers for it.  When the war was over she was compelled to pay a good round sum for her dishonest course, and was taught a lesson she is not likely soon to forget.  These cruisers wrought immense havoc among our shipping, and Commander Winslow was sent into European waters in quest of them.  He was specially anxious to meet the Florida, and followed her from the coast of South America to that of England and France.  The governments of those two countries threw every possible obstacle in his way.  The French pilots were forbidden to serve the Kearsarge, and Captain Winslow had to be his own pilot—­something he was well able to do because of his familiarity with the coasts.