The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama

The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama is a painting by Édouard Manet which hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The painting commemorates the Battle of Cherbourg of 1864, a naval engagement between the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and the rebel privateer CSS Alabama.

Not having witnessed the battle himself, Manet relied on press descriptions of the fight to document his work.

In 1872, Barbey d'Aurevilly stated that the painting was a "magnificiant marine painting" and that "the sea (...) is more frightening than the battle". It was hung at Alfred Cadart's and was praised by the critic Philippe Burty