[Alter Kaker]

17 United States sailors of the USS Kearsarge were awarded the Medal of Honor in the Battle of Cherbourg, sinking the rebel pirate ship Alabama.

And the Alabama was in fact a pirate ship, by the admission of its own captain, Mr. Semmes.

[DiogenesLamp]

History is written by the people who win, and it colors everything they did as good, and everything the losers did as bad.

It's just another form of propaganda.

[Bull Snipe]

Sixty five ships sunk or captured, 2,000 crewmen captured.
Not one death among them. Unusual for a pirate, don’t you think.

[Bull Snipe]

Commerce raiding is a legitimate tactic in maritime warfare.
CSS Alabama was commissioned ship in the Confederate Navy, not a privateer. CSS Alabama was acting under orders from the Confederate Navy Department, not a letter of Marque.
That is not piracy. That is naval war at sea. She was no more a pirate ship than any submarine torpedoing a commercial vessel of the enemy. Both the Royal Navy and the French Navy recognized her as a legitimate warship of the Confederate Navy and not a privateer. Otherwise they would have been hunting her down, just as the U.S. Navy was.