water; the pilots cannot take us any nearer to the Minnesota; this ship is leaking from the loss of her prow; the men are exhausted by being so long at their guns; the tide is ebbing, so that we shall have to remain here all night unless we leave at once. I propose to return to Norfolk for repairs. What is your opinion?"

I answered: "If things are as you say, I agree with you.' So did the other lieutenants, with the exception of Lieutenant John Taylor Wood. He stepped over from his gun to mine for a moment, and said: "I proposed to Jones to run down to Fortress Monroe and clean up the Yankee ships there or run them out to sea."

This alternative course suggested by Wood shows that the Monitor was no longer a factor in the situation. As for the proposition on its merits, to attack a vastly superior naval force, protected by the guns of one of the greatest fortresses in the world, was too hazardous to be considered by a cool-headed commander like Jones, with all the responsibility on his shoulders.

TRIBUTE TO WOOD.

While writing at the age of seventy-five, necessarily with a flying pen, this, my last article on this subject, let me pay one passing tribute to the memory of my gallant old friend, my classmate at Annapolis, my messmate on the Virginia, the late Commander John Taylor Wood, C. S. A., a grandson of General Zachary Taylor. He had inherited the indomitable pluck of that old hero. During the fight with the Monitor he had called for volunteers to go with him to board that vessel from an open boat, and try to wedge her turret to prevent her from turning it. The withdrawal of the Monitor frustrated the attempt.

Subsequently, during the war Commander Wood received the joint thanks of the Confederate Congress for capturing at different times and places, by boarding them, sword in hand, eight vessels belonging to the Federal navy.

That to the dead; this to the living: To my former messmate and senior on the Virginia, the gallant Hunter Davidson, commander C. S. A., now living in Paraguay, at an age exceeding

eighty, the world owes to the Confederate States the use of the torpedo in war, and the Confederate States owe it to Davidson. He received the thanks of the Confederate States of America Congress for attacking the Minnesota with a torpedo carried at the end of a pole in an open boat.

The main object of this article is to .fix in the minds of the younger generation the fact that the Virginia (Merrimac) defeated the Monitor in her encounter with that vessel, instead of being defeated by the Monitor, as is falsely stated by Northern writers. I will conclude this article by heaping "Pelion on Ossa" in the shape of proofs. The two opposing armies on each side of the bay say the Monitor ran away. I have before me the written words of three eye-witnesses of her fight, viz: my brother officers, Jones, Simms and Davidson. I, myself, saw her run twice. But in case such testimony be impeached as being from interested parties, here is a statement from the other side:

STATEMENT FROM ENEMY.

Captain G. J. Van Brunt, in command of the Minnesota, bore the reputation in the United States Navy second to none. Here are his words: "For some time after the rebels concentrated their whole battery upon the tower and pilot-house of the Monitor, and soon after, the latter stood down for Fortress Monroe, and we thought it probable she had exhausted her supply of ammunition or sustained some injury. Soon other steamers headed for my ship."

Soon after her return to Norfolk the Virginia went into dock for repairs. Flag Officer Tatum had been ordered to take command of her. From the time she came out of dock until she was destroyed by her own people, that is for about two months, she was "cock of the walk" in the waters of Norfolk. Repeatedly she offered battle to the enemy, but no single Federal vessel, nor any number combined, ever ventured within range of her guns.

ANOTHER FLIGHT RECORDED.

On the 8th of May, 1862, we were lying anchored off Nor

folk when we heard a terrific bombardment going on down the bay. We ran down at full speed and discovered that a squadron of Federal vessels, led by the Monitor, was encircling around in front of Sewell's Point and throwing their broadsides into our works there as they passed. We heard later that it was a show for the benefit of Mr. Lincoln, who was on a visit to Fortress Monroe. At our approach they fled ignominuously and huddled for safety under the guns of Fortress Monroe. The Jamestown went in and cut out transport vessels almost under their guns, and they pocketed the insult. The British ship of war Rinaldo was lying in the Roads, and as we passed her on our return, her crew mounted the riggings and gave us three cheers.

The career of the famous ship was now drawing to a close. She had never been the effective fighting machine that the hopes of her friends and the fears of her enemies had made her. I am sure she could not have repeated her exploit during her fights of two days with as little injury as she actually received. She never was more than a floating battery, forming part and parcel of the fortifications of Norfolk. She was utterly unseaworthy, and could not ascend the James River without first lightening her so that with the exposure of her wooden hull she would not longer be an ironclad.

UNITED STATES ARMY OFFICER, WHO TOOK PART IN THE BATTLE OF NEW MARKET, WRITES OF VALOR OF V. M. I, CADETS.

The following is a letter from Captain Franklin E. Town, of Tallahassee, Fla., late captain of the signal corps, United States army, to an old cadet of the Virginia Military Institute, who witnessed the charge of the cadets at New Market:

In compliance with your request that I would state what I observed of the action of the cadet battalion at the battle of New Market, I am very happy to write you my recollections of an event which deeply impressed me at the time, and which appears more meritorious as the lapse of years places it at a distance from which it can be dispassionately viewed, and admits of its examination as a matter of history.

I was designated as chief signal officer of "the Department of West Virginia," and in that capacity I marched with the division of General Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley. In preparation for this duty, I had organized a command of some twenty-two officers and over 200 enlisted men, constituting the signal service corps, and being well mounted, it formed a very respectable cavalry command. The foregoing is to explain my presence and opportunities for observation. Our army was put in motion, I think, about the 10th of May, 1864, from our camp, a little south of Winchester. We moved down the valley a few days, and on the morning of Sunday, May 15th, we left our bivouac between Woodstock and Mount Jackson, and continued our March along the pike.

The valley turnpike was then, and I presume it is now, a wide, smooth macadamized road. Some rain on the previous day and evening had made the road a little muddy, so that the troops would naturally pick out the best spots to walk upon, and thus the column got to be a good deal "strung out." Fol

lowing the troops was the artillery and then a long wagon train. Up to this time our advance had been opposed only by small skirmishing parties, not strong enough to retard our march or to give battle. Before noon on this day information from the front was brought to General Sigel that the enemy was in position at New Market, about four miles from where the head of the column then was.

ORDERED TO ESCORT BATTERY.

While I did not hear the conversation which ensued between General Sigel and his chief of staff, I think it was suggested to him to close up his column near to and fronting the enemy, and go into bivouac, and attack in the morning with the army rested and fresh; but I did hear General Sigel say loudly, "We may as well fight them today as any day; we will advance," and he did push on ahead of his column, all of infantry. I don't think any cavalry, and I am sure no artillery, was ahead of our position in the column. After pausing a few minutes in a grove by the side of the road and sending off some aides and orderlies with orders, during which time the infantry was passing us toward the front, General Sigel turned to me and ordered me to wait where I was with my command for the coming of Von Kleiser's Battery and escort it to the field, and then General Sigel rode forward to the battle. This battery was well to the rear of the column, and I think it was, at the moment, the nearest to the scene of action of any artillery in our command. I waited about an hour, until the battery came up, when I closed in my command in front and rear of the battery, on the road, and brought it up to the field.

When the battery went into position and unlimbered, the engagement was on; and, indeed, I had heard the ring of musketry for some time previously. I presume there had been preliminary skirmishing, but I did not see it, for when I arrived. on the field the lines of our infantry were actively engaged with the Confederate infantry, which were behind some light works. Von Kleiser's Battery went into position at the left of our line of battle, just on the crest of a low hill. My escort ser