he Battle of the U.S.S. by Edouard Manet.The painting commemorates the Battle of Cherbourg of 1864, a naval engagement between the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and the Confederate raider CSS Alabama. Many spectators were able to see the battle from the coast of France and saw that the USS Kearsarge sank the CSS Alabama. Not having witnessed the battle himself, Manet relied on press descriptions of the fight to document his work. Within one month of this battle, Manet had already completed this painting and got it on display in the print shop of Alfred Cadart in Paris.