CHAPTER XIX.

MERRIMACK AND MONITOR.

IRON-CLADS.—THE MERRIMACK. SHE STEAMS TO HAMPTON ROADS.-AN IRON STORM.-SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND.-THE CONGRESS SURRENDERS. THE MINNESOTA IN DANGER. THE MERRIMACK LEAVES HER PREY.-A DISMAL NIGHT.-ARRIVAL OF THE MONITOR.-A CHEESEBOX ON A PLANK.-EXPLOSION OF THE CONGRESS.-A SUNDAY VISIT. THE MONITOR IN WAITING.THE CHEESE-BOX IS MADE OF IRON-LIEUTENANT WORDEN WOUNDED.-THE MERRIMACK RETREATS.—THE MINNESOTA SAVED.-HONORS TO ERICSSON.-JOE'S DEAD.

HE first iron-clad vessels built during the war were those

Tused on the Western ribus during these were the St.

Louis, Carondelet, Cairo, Mound City, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg, built by James B. Eads, a civil engineer of St. Louis, who has since become famous as the constructor of the great bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis and of the work for deepening the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi. The Confederates had early turned their attention to the building of armored vessels, and had met the Union gunboats with the Manassas and several other iron-clad rams and gunboats. They had also begun to build some larger and still more formidable war-ships, such as the Louisiana and the Mississippi at New Orleans and the Virginia at Norfolk, the last-named being better known as the Merrimack.

It will be remembered that the Merrimack, one of the finest steam-frigates in the United States Navy, had been set on fire and scuttled when the Gosport Navy Yard was abandoned in April, 1861. The noble vessel sank to the bottom before the flames had injured her much, and the Confederates soon after raised her, cut down her upper deck and built upon her a very strong timber covering, with sloping sides, like the roof of a house. The outside of this was plated with iron thick enough. to be proof against shot from the most powerful guns then in use. Her bow and stern were both under water, and her bow was made sharp and fitted with a cast-iron beak, to be used as a ram. This novel war vessel, which was finished early in March, 1862, and renamed the Virginia, though her new name did not stick to her, was armed with ten heavy guns, four on each side, one in the bow, and one in the stern, put under the

command of Captain Franklin Buchanan, formerly of the United States Navy.

The Confederates hoped that this formidable war-vessel would enable them to open Hampton Roads, which the ships of the Union had kept closely blockaded since the beginning of the war, and which had been the starting-place of the naval expeditions which had done so much damage to their coasts. Vague rumors of this new engine of war had found their way North, and created no little fear, for it was suggested that she might easily ascend the Potomac and destroy Washington, or steam into the harbor of New York and fire the city with her shells, or force the inhabitants to buy safety with a vast sum of

FRANKLIN BUCHANAN.

money. These rumors probably had the effect of hastening the government in building ironclads, several of which had already been planned. At last, without any warning, the dreaded sea monster made her appearance in Hampton Roads. About noon of Saturday, March 8, 1862, a large black steamer, accompanied by two smaller vessels, was seen coming down the Eliza

beth River. It was at once thought to be the long-expected Merrimack, and her approach was signalled to the fleet. The Union vessels then in the Roads were the sailing vessels Cumberland, 24 guns; Congress, 50 guns; and St. Lawrence, 50 guns; the steamers Roanoke and Minnesota, each of 40 guns; and several small steamers. The Cumberland and the Congress lay off Newport News; the others were off Fortress Monroe, about six miles distant. Captain Marston, of the Roanoke, who commanded the fleet, at once started with his steamer and the St. Lawrence for Newport News.

The drums of the Cumberland and the Congress beat to quarters and the ships were prepared for action. Their crews

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watched curiously every movement of the Confederate battery, of which they had heard such terrible reports. On she came, steaming slowly toward them, her chimneys belching black smoke, and her flag fluttering defiantly in the breeze, while the two little steamers followed close behind. When she was about a mile distant the Cumberland opened fire upon her, but the "house afloat," as some of the sailors called her, came on without replying. As she passed the Congress, that vessel poured a broadside into her, but the balls bounded from her mailed sides as if they were made of India-rubber. The Merrimack, conscious of her strength, steamed grimly on through the iron storm which would have sunk any common vessel, and steered directly for the Cumberland, which lay with her side toward her so as to bring her broadside to bear. The Cumberland opened a heavy fire on the monster which she could not escape, and the Merrimack, amid the flash and roar of her guns and enveloped in a pall of smoke which nearly hid her from view, went with a crash through the side of the doomed ship. The Cumberland shivered from end to end, and when the Merrimack drew slowly back it was found that her iron beak had passed through her, making a ragged hole into which the water rushed fast. The Merrimack then fired broadside after broadside into her sinking foe; but the gallant men of the Cumberland, never dreaming of surrender, stood by their guns to the last. In three quarters of an hour after she was struck the noble ship went down in fifty-four feet of water, with her flag flying at the peak. The dead and the wounded sank with her; of the rest of the crew some swam to the shore and some were picked up by small boats; but of three hundred and seventy-six men, one hundred and twenty-one were lost. Meanwhile the two little vessels, the Beaufort and the Raleigh, had been firing into the Congress. Three other small gunboats, the Patrick Henry, the Jamestown, and the Teazer, joined them in the attack. The Congress replied bravely to their fire until the fate of the Cumberland showed her commander what he had to expect, and he ordered her to be run ashore, so that the enemy could not ram her. The Merrimack then fired shells into her with great effect, dismounting her guns, and killing many of her men. At last, her commander, Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, and a large part of her crew hav

ing fallen, and the ship being on fire in several places, her colors were hauled down. Some of her men were taken prisoners by one of the Confederate steamers, and some escaped to the shore; but many were killed and wounded, and only about half of her crew of four hundred and thirty-four answered the roll-call next morning.

But where were the three frigates which had left Fortress Monroe to go to the aid of these unfortunate ships? They had grounded in the shallow water, and had watched the unequal struggle more than a mile away, powerless to help. After the destruction of the Cumberland and the Congress, the Merrimack and the gunboats bore down to attack the others. The Roanoke by this time had got off, with the aid of tugs, but her machinery being damaged she returned to Fortress Monroe. The Merrimack drew so much water that she could not get within a mile of the stranded vessels, so she fired shells at them from a distance, the gunboats helping her with their fire. The Minnesota was struck several times, and had many men killed and wounded. At last the St. Lawrence was pulled off by tugs and taken back to Fortress Monroe, but the Minnesota remained fast in the mud. She kept up a fire on the enemy, but without any effect on the armor of the Merrimack, and it seemed as if she must soon suffer the fate of the Congress. But the day was fast waning, and at length about seven o'clock the Confederates left their prey and steamed slowly back toward Norfolk.

Saturday night was a dismal one at Fortress Monroe, and few eyes closed in sleep. The return of the Merrimack on the morrow was a certainty, and there seemed to be little chance of saving the Minnesota. What the monster would do next was a question which no one could decide. General Wool, the commander of the Fortress, telegraphed to Washington that probably both the Minnesota and the St. Lawrence would be captured, and that it was thought the enemy's vessels would pass the Fortress that night. What would be the next object of attack no one could foresee. But the Merrimack did not appear again that night.

About nine o'clock in the evening a queer-looking vessel came into Hampton Roads, and anchored near the Fortress. It was a novel steam-battery-the now famous Monitor-which

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had been building near New York under the eye of her inventor, John Ericsson, a Swede by birth, but long a resident of the United States. Much had been heard of this vessel, and a great deal had been promised for her by her builder, but when she came into the Roads everybody was disappointed. What could this puny thing do against the great Merrimack, more than five times her tonnage! Her sides were but little above the water, and nothing was to be seen on her deck but a kind of round iron box in the middle, a pilot-house forward, and a small smokestack aft. At a mile's distance she might be taken for a raftindeed, the Confederates well described her when they called her a "Yankee cheese-box on a plank." But when one went on board, her great strength was seen: her deck was plated with shell-proof iron, and her

round box, called a turret, was made of iron plates eight to nine inches thick. Inside this turret, which was made to turn round, were two eleveninch Dahlgren guns, placed side by side, so that both could be fired together at the same object. Ordinary ships have to be turned so as to bring their guns to bear on an enemy, but by revolving the turret of the Monitor her guns could be fired forward, backward, or sideways, without changing the position of the ship. Her bow, too, was made strong and sharp, so that she could ram in the side of an enemy's vessel. This odd-shaped craft had been named by her inventor the Monitor because, he said, he expected that she would be a monitor to the great nations of Europe, and teach them that the days of old-fashioned ships had passed away for

ever.

JOHN ERICSSON.

The authorities at Washington, frightened at the prospect of a visit from the Merrimack, had telegraphed to have the Monitor sent there as soon as she should arrive at Fortress Monroe; but Captain Marston, thinking it important to do what he could to save the rest of the fleet, ordered Lieutenant