John L. Worden, her commander, to go to the aid of the Minnesota. The little vessel therefore went up during the night and took a position alongside the Minnesota, between her and the Fortress, where she could not be seen by the Confederates but could be ready to slip out in case the Merrimack and her gunboats came to finish their work. The whole bay and the shores were lighted up by the flames of the Congress, which had been burning many hours. Her guns went off one by one

as the fire reached them, and at last, a little after midnight, her magazine, which contained five tons of gunpowder, went off with a grand explosion, which threw the blazing fragments of the ship over the waters a great distance around.

The Monitor did not have to wait long, for early on Sunday morning the monster was seen coming down again, followed The Confederates by two gunboats crowded with troops. evidently hoped to board the Minnesota and capture both her and her crew, and this is probably the reason why they did not destroy her the night before. As the Merrimack approached, the Monitor slipped out from behind the Minnesota and steamed straight at her. She looked like a pigmy beside the great mailed battery, whose black sides rose up higher than the top of her turret. The crew of the Merrimack did not know what to make of the odd little craft, that had appeared as suddenly as if it had risen from the depths of the sea, but they soon

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found out that it had teeth, for when the Monitor had come within a hundred yards of her foe, she opened fire with her great guns. The Merrimack, astonished at her reception, threw open her ports and poured into her several broadsides such as had sunk the wooden ships; but the steel shot glanced as harmlessly from her turret as had the balls of the Cumberland and the Congress from her own armor the day before, and her crew cried out in wonder, "The cheese-box is made of iron!" From eight o'clock until noon the battle raged. The Monitor, more easily managed than her antagonist, sailed round and round the Merrimack firing and receiving her broadsides in return, the two being often so near to each other that their sides touched. Once the Merrimack got aground, but getting afloat again she turned

BATTLE BETWEEN THE MERRIMACK AND THE MONITOR.

savagely upon the Monitor and ran directly at her, hoping to run her down. But though she struck her so hard that the Monitor's crew were nearly thrown off their feet, she did not damage the vessel in the least.

The Merrimack, finding that she was only wasting her ammunition on the Monitor, fired a shell into the Minnesota, setting her on fire. Another shell struck the boiler of a tugboat near the Minnesota and blew her up. But the Monitor was not to be cheated in this way. She steamed up between the Minnesota and the Merrimack and renewed the battle. The Merrimack now trained her guns on the Monitor's pilot house, which was built of wrought-iron beams a foot thick. A solid

shot broke one of these beams in two, and drove it inward an inch and a half. Lieutenant Worden, who at the time had his eyes close to a slit between the bars, watching the Merrimack, was severely wounded in the face so as to lose his eyesight for a long time. He was therefore obliged to give up the command to Lieutenant Greene, who continued the fight. But after a few more broadsides, the Merrimack, finding that she could do nothing with her enemy, gave up the battle and steamed back to Norfolk, followed by her gunboats.

The breaking of the beam in the pilot-house was the only damage the Monitor received, although she was struck twentytwo times. The injuries of the Merrimac in the two days' fight were almost as trivial; her iron beak was twisted, some of her armor plates damaged, her smoke and steam pipes riddled, and her anchor and flag-staffs shot away. Two of her guns also had their muzzles shot off. The Monitor returned to Fortress Monroe and remained there on the watch for her rival, but the Merrimack did not see fit to try her mettle again. The Minnesota was lightened and put afloat again during the following night, to the delight of her captain and crew, who had fought her so nobly and under such trying circumstances.

JOHN L. WORDEN.

Honors were showered on Ericsson, the inventor, and on Worden, the commander of the Monitor, for all felt that to them were due our deliverance from great peril. Chief Engineer Stimers, who was on the Monitor during the battle, wrote to Captain Ericsson as follows: "I congratulate you on your great success. Thousands have this day blessed you. I have heard whole crews cheer you. Every man feels that you have saved this place to the nation by furnishing us with the means to whip an iron-clad frigate that was, until our arrival, having it

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all her own way with our most powerful vessels." But the Monitor did far more than save a few ships and a fortress-it settled the question of naval power in favor of the Union and taught the nations of the Old World who wished to see our country divided that it would be dangerous for them to interfere in the quarrel. The government, which had built the Monitor on trial, recognized her great value and at once began to construct other vessels of the same model, and by the next year the United States had a fleet of iron ships afloat able to defend their coasts against the navies of all the rest of the world.

Lieutenant Worden was so shocked by the concussion of the shot which had so nearly blinded him that he was insensible for some time. When he came to himself, his first question was, "Have I saved the Minnesota?"

"Yes," was the reply, "and whipped the Merrimack.” "Then I don't care what becomes of me," he answered.

McKean Buchanan, brother of the commander of the Merrimack, was a paymaster on the Congress at the time of the battle; but desiring to do active duty, he asked the commander to give him a place on the upper decks. He served gallantly through the action, and in his report to the Navy Department he said, "Thank God, I did some service to my beloved country."

Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, the commander of the Congress, who was noted for his bravery, fell before the ship surrendered. When his father, the veteran Commodore Joseph Smith, who was on duty at Washington, saw by the first despatch from Fortress Monroe that the Congress had raised the white flag, he only remarked quietly, "Joe's dead." The feeling that his son would never surrender his trust while alive was well founded. The ship's flag was not lowered until his son had fallen.

CHAPTER XX.

PENINSULA CAMPAIGN.

THE GRAND ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.-WASHINGTON AND RICHMOND.-MCCLELLAN ILL-EDWIN M. STANTON.-PLANS FOR TAKING RICHMOND.-PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ORDER.-OPPOSITION TO MCCLELLAN.—THE CONFEDERATES LEAVE MANASSAS.-MCCLELLAN'S COMMAND CHANGED.--STONEWALL JACKSON IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY.-GENERAL BANKS OPPOSES HIM. THE POTOMAC FREE.-THE ARMY GOES TO THE PENINSULA.-THE FRENCH PRINCESMR. LINCOLN AND THE POLITICIANS.-SIEGE OF YORKTOWN.-BIG NIGGER, Come Down!OLD SETH.-JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.-TORPEDOES.-BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG.-THE CHICKAHOMINY. NORFOLK.-DRURY'S BLUFF.-PANIC IN RICHMOND,

WE

E must return once more to the Grand Army of the Potomac, which we left in winter quarters around Washington, but little more than a day's march from the camp of the Confederates at Manassas. Before following the movements of these two great forces, let us look for a few moments at the task which the Union army had to accomplish, and the several ways of doing it. Its first duty was to protect Washington, which unfortunately was situated on the borders of one of the Confederate States, where it was open to attacks from the enemy, who could easily march against it either from Manassas or from the Shenandoah Valley. Its second duty was to take Richmond, the Confederate capital, which lies about a hundred miles south-south-west of Washington, on the north bank of the James River.

The nature of the country between the Potomac River and Richmond is such as to make the passage across it of an invading army very difficult. If you will look at any large atlas you will see that it is crossed by several rivers, all having a general southeasterly course. The first of these rivers, beginning at the north, the Occoquan, which flows into the Potomac, is formed by the union of Bull Run and Cedar Run. The next, the Rappahannock, whose waters reach the Atlantic through Chesapeake Bay, is formed by the junction of the North Fork and the Rapidan. Then come the Mattapony (made up of four small streams, the Mat, the Ta, the Po, and the Ny) and the Pamunkey (formed of the North Anna and the South Anna), which unite and form the York River, flowing also into