Executive Officer James S. Thornton (1817 - 1875)
Born Merrimack (NH); died at Germantown (PA). Career naval officer, U.S. Navy. Portrait by U.D. Tenney, 1874; presented to the State by descendants, 1894.

James Thornton was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy on January 15, 1841. He served on the John Adams, a sloop converted to a man-of-war with the addition of cannon and other modifications.

At the outbreak of the Civil War Thornton was serving on the brig Bainbridge, on the Atlantic coast. Later he became Executive Officer for Admiral David Farragut's flagship Hartford. He was aboard the Hartford when the vessel helped capture New Orleans (LA), April 14, 1862, and he served on the Hartford in subsequent campaigns on the Mississippi River, including at Vicksburg.

In August 1862 Thornton became commander of the gunboat Winona, stationed off Mobile (AL). He served as Executive Officer of the Kearsarge in its famous naval battle against the Alabama, on June 19, 1864 and subsequently became commanding officer of the Kearsarge, 1868-1870.

The battle between the Kearsarge and the Alabama rose from a challenge issued by Ralph Semmes, captain of the cruiser Alabama, to Captain John Winslow of the Kearsarge. The Confederacy had managed to build eighteen cruisers, with which they planned to defeat the Northern blockade of southern ports. The Alabama was the most successful of the Confederate fleet, having captured seventy prizes worth more than $6 million going into the battle; and the location of the battle was in the North Sea, off Cherbourg, France. The Confederacy wanted to show its English and French backers that European support for the Confederacy was not in vain. But the battle also had important military implications. In the words of Frederick Milnes Edge , a 19th century English military writer:

The importance of the engagement .cannot be estimated by the size of the two vessels. The conflict.was the first decisive engagement between shipping propelled by steam, and the first test of modern naval artillery. It was, moreover, a contest for superiority between the ordinance of Europe and America, whilst the result furnishes us with data.to estimate the relative advantage of rifled and smooth-bore cannon at short range..[The battle showed] superiority of the 11-inch Dahlgren guns of the Kearsarge, over the Blakely rifle and the vaunted 68-pounder of the Alabama..(F.M. Edge, "An Englishman's View of the Battle between the Alabama and the Kearsarge" (New York, 1864).
A shorter account of the battle, by Anonymous but very possibly by Edge, is titled "The Alabama and the Kearsarge: An Account of the Naval Engagement in the British Channel, on Sunday, June 19, 1864" (Boston, 1870).

The sinking of the Alabama was a major defeat for the Confederacy, and a major victory for the supporters of the Union cause. Thornton's naval career was undoubtedly helped by his participation in the battle.

Note: For readers interested in the capture of New Orleans, a good contemporary account is provided in Chester G. Hearn, When the Devil Came Down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New Orleans (1997).

Location: First Floor, State House