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 twenty

two 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 PRINCES.-MR. 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

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Chesapeake Bay. South of all these is the Chickahominy, which pours its waters into the James River below Richmond. The Confederates made lines of defence behind most of these rivers during the war, and for four long years repelled the attempts of the Union army to drive them back.

There were several ways by which Richmond might be attacked from Washington: the army might march directly against General Joseph E. Johnston, whose forces still lay behind Bull Run, which Beauregard had chosen in the beginning of the war for his line of defence; or it might move through Maryland down the east bank of the Potomac to a point opposite Fredericksburg, and crossing the river march by the direct road from that city to Richmond; or it might go by water to the lower part of the Rappahannock River or to Fortress Monroe, from both of which places roads led to Richmond.

EDWIN M. STANTON.

After a long time of inactivity the Army of the Potomac was at last considered ready to move against the enemy. It will be remembered that General McClellan had had not only the duty of organizing this great force, which numbered nearly two hundred thousand men, but also general charge of military operations in all parts of the country. It was under his directions that the successful movements were made in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and it was he who planned the expeditions which resulted in the occupation of the inland waters of North Carolina, the capture of the forts on the coasts, and the fall of New Orleans. While attending to these difficult duties General McClellan was seized with a serious illness which lasted several weeks. When he recovered, about the middle of January, Mr. Cameron, the Secretary of War, had been succeeded in his office by Edwin M. Stanton, an able lawyer, and a man of

great energy, but without any military knowledge. General McClellan laid before him his plan to move the greater part of the army to Urbana, on the Rappahannock River, leaving behind enough to defend Washington. This, he claimed, while being the best route to advance against Richmond, would force General Johnston to leave Manassas in order to prevent the Union army from getting between him and Richmond. But President Lincoln, who was always in great fear lest Washington should be taken, disapproved of this plan, and insisted that the army should move directly on Manassas; and on the 27th of January he issued an order that all the armies, including those in the West as well as the Army of the Potomac, and the fleets in the Mississippi and in the Gulf of Mexico, should make a general movement against the enemy on the 22d of February. Of course this very singular order, made without consultation with any of the officers in command of the armies and fleets, and without any regard to the circumstances by which each was surrounded, could not be obeyed.

General McClellan made a statement in writing to the President showing why the proposed movement against Manassas was not so good as the one suggested by him, and Mr. Lincoln, apparently convinced that he was in the wrong, ordered the Secretary of War to get together vessels enough to carry the army to the Rappahannock. But even after the vessels were making ready, Mr. Lincoln, still uneasy and dissatisfied, asked General McClellan to submit the two plans to a council of the principal officers of the army. This was done on March 8th, and General McClellan's plan was approved by eight out of the twelve generals present.

So it was finally decided that the advance should be made according to this plan, but the President and Mr. Stanton were still so opposed to it that McClellan was not allowed to use the army which he had made as he thought best, nor even to select his own officers. The army was divided, without consulting him, into four corps, under the command of Generals Keyes, Sumner, Heintzelman, and McDowell, the last three of whom were among the four generals who had voted against his plan. His movements were tied in other ways, which we have not room to discuss here; it is sufficient to say that the President, though acting as he believed for the best interests of the coun