358

• March 9, 1862.

CONFEDERATES EVACUATE MANASSAS.

ington was more immediately affecting the Army of the Potomac. On the day after the President's order just cited," the General-in-Chief received information that the Confederates had abandoned Cen treville and Manassas, and were falling back toward Richmond, by which McClellan's proposed flank movement by, way of the lower Rappahannock was made unnecessary.

Preparations for this retirement had been commenced three weeks before by a quiet removal of the army stores and munitions, but the officers of McClellan's secret service seem to have been in profound ignorance of the fact, and by their reports were strengthening his belief that the number of the Confederates on his front was so great, that the utter discomfiture of his army would be risked by advancing against them at Manassas.' But from the statements of the Confederate commanders, and writers in the interest of the rebellion, it appears that Johnston had at no time during the winter intended to make a stand at Manassas, for his troops were too few in number and too scantily provided to make even a show of strong resistance. It was this weakness of his forces, and the order of the President for the forward movement of all the National armies on the 22d of February, and not a knowledge of McClellan's intended flank movement, as the latter afterward supposed, that caused Johnston to flee from Manassas. The removal of his stores and war materials commenced a few days before the prescribed time for McClellan to advance upon his position. It was a masterly movement, and evinced that ability which has caused Johnston to be regarded by experts on both sides as by far the most able of the commanders of the Confederate armies.

On receiving information of the evacuation of Centreville › March 9. and Manassas,' McClellan crossed the Potomac, and issued orders for the immediate advance of the whole army toward the abandoned posts, not, as he afterward explained in his report, for the purpose of pursuing the retiring Confederates, and pushing on toward Richmond, but to "get rid of superfluous baggage and other impediments which accumulate so easily around an army encamped for a long time in one locality," and to 'give the troops some experience in the march and bivouac preparatory to the campaign."3 His advance, composed of Colonel Averill's cavalry,

66

1 On the day when Johnston's little army withdrew from Manassas, E. J Allen, the chief of McClellan's secret service corps, reported to his commander that the forces of the Confederates “at that date" were as follows: At Manassas, and within twenty miles of it, 98,000 men, at Leesburg and vicinity, 4,500; and in the Shenandoah Valley 13,500, making a total of 115,000. He also reported that they had about 300 field-guns, and from 26 to 30 siege-guns in front of Washington." See General McClellan's Report, pages 56 and 57. At the same time General Wool at Fortress Monroe, and General Wadsworth, back of Arlington Heights, had the most reliable information that, ten days before the evacuation, not 50,000 troops were in front of the Army of the Potomac. Subsequent investigations and statements reduce that number below 40,000.

2 In his report, made seventeen months after this occurrence. McClellan says: "The retirement of the enemy toward Richmond had been expected as the natural consequence of the movement to the Peninsula," and adds that it was done immediately on ascertaining that such a movement was intended." See McClellan's Report, page 54. The evacuation was commenced almost a fortnight before the council of officers decided on the movement to the Peninsula." That Johnston was ignorant of the intended flank movement at the time of the evacuation, is evident from a remark of an English officer then serving under him, who said, in speaking of the forces there: "In fact, McClellan was quietly maturing plans for the seizure of Centreville and Manassas, when Johnston suddenly gave orders for a general retreat, and all our army began to move rapidly southward."-See Battle-fields of the South. from Bull Run to Fredericksburg, by an English Combatant, Lieutenant of Artillery on the Field Staff.

3 McClellan's Report, pages 54, 55.

"PROMENADE" OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

359

reached Centreville on the 10th. The works there and at Manassas Junc tion were abandoned, and yet the Confederates were not far away for four days afterward." General

a March 14,

1862.

Stoneman, who had been sent out with a heavy force of cavalry to push their rear across the Rappahannock, saw them in large numbers at Warrenton Junction. On account of difficulty in procuring subsistence, heavy rains, and bad roads, Stoneman did not molest the retiring army, and the pursuit, if it may be so called, ended here. On the following day the main body of the Army of the Potomac, under the mask of a strong reconnoissance of the corps of Howard and Sumner toward the Rappahannock, moved back to Alexandria. same time, followed some distance, in spite of mud and weather, by the cavalry of Stuart and Ewell, a battery of artillery, and some infantry. Then the Confederates moved leisurely on and encamped, first behind the Rappahannock, and then in a more eligible position beyond the Rapid Anna.

9

GEORGE STONEMAN.

Stoneman's advance retired at the

This "promenade" (as one of McClellan's aids, of the Orleans family, called it) of the Army of the Potomac disappointed the people, and confirmed the President's opinion, indicated in an order issued on the 11th, that the burden of managing that army in person, and, as general-in-chief, directing the movements of all the others, was too much for General McClellan to bear. By this order he kindly relieved that officer of a part of the burden.' To General Halleck was assigned the command of the National troops in the Valley of the Mississippi, and westward of the longitude of Knoxville in Tennessee; and a Mountain Department, consisting of the region between the commands of Halleck and McClellan, was created and placed under the command of General Fremont. The commanders of Departments were ordered to report directly to the Secretary of War.

The notable events in Hampton Roads, that modified McClellan's plans for marching on Richmond, occurred at this juncture. It was known that the Confederates were fashioning into a formidable iron-clad ram the fine steam-frigate Merrimack, which, as we have observed, was burned and sunk at Norfolk in the spring of 1861. She had been raised; and, in accordance with a plan furnished by Lieutenant John M. Brooke, formerly

1 Stoneman's report to General McClellan, March 16, 1862.

2 This is the correct orthography of the name of one of three rivers in that part of Virginia, which has been generally written, in connection with the war, Rapidan. These smal rivers are called, respectively, North Anna, South Anna, and Rapid Anna; the word Anna being frequently pronounced with brevity. Ann.

3 Major-General McClellan," said the order, "having personally taken the field at the head of the Army of the Potomac, until otherwise ordered, he is relieved from the command of the other Military Departments he retaining the command of the Department of the Potomac."

4 See page 398, volume I.

360

THE "MERRIMACK" AND "MONITOR."

of the National navy, she was transformed into a destructive implement of war, and named Virginia. The world had never before seen a floating engine of war equal to this. From the spoils of the Norfolk Navy Yard she was completely equipped, and her commander was Captain Franklin Bucha

nan, an experienced officer of the National navy (who had been fortyfive years in the service), assisted by Catesby Ap R. Jones, another traitor to his flag.

This terrible battery was completed at the beginning of March, and its appearance in Hampton Roads was then daily expected. Meanwhile another engine of destruction, of novel form and aspect, had been prepared at Green Point, Long Island, a short distance from New York, under the direction of its inventor, Captain John Ericsson, a scientific Swede, who had been a resident of the United States for twenty years. This vessel, almost a dwarf in appearance by the side of the Merrimack, presented to the eye, when afloat, a simple platform, sharp at both ends, and bearing a round revolving iron Martello tower, twenty feet in diameter and ten feet high, and forming a bomb-proof fort, in which two 11-inch Dahlgren cannon were mounted.

FRANKLIN BUCHANAN.

1 The Merrimack or Virginia appeared, when afloat, like a huge roof. This and her sides were composed of heavy oak timber, twenty-eight inches in thickness, covered six inches deep by railway iron bars and iron plates. A bulwark, or false bow, was added, and beyond this was a strong oak and iron beak, thirty-three feet long, after the fashion of those on the western waters, already mentioned. She was made apparently shotproof; was propelled by two engines of great power, and carried on each side four 80-pounder rifled cannon, and at the bow and stern a gun that would hurl a 100-pound solid shot, or 120-pound shell. She was furnished with furnaces for heating shot, and apparatus for throwing hot water. Her engines and other apparatus were all below water-mark.

2 The deck of the Monitor was only a few inches above water. The round revolving tower was twenty feet in diameter and ten feet in

height above the deck. The smoke-stack was made with telescopic slides, so as to be lowered in action. The hull was sharp at both ends, the angle at the bow being about eighty degrees to the vertical line. It was only six feet six inches deep, with a flat bottom, and was 124 feet in length and 34 in width at the top. On this hull rested another, five feet in height, of the same form, that extended over the lower one three feet seven inches all around, excepting at the ends, where it projected twenty-five feet, by which protection was afforded to the anchor, propeller, and rudder. The whole was built of light three-inch iron, and was very buoyant. Its exposed parts were guarded by a wall of white

oak, thirty inches in thickness, on which was laid iron armor six inches thick. A shot, to reach the lower hull, would have to pass through twenty-five feet of water, and then strike an inclined iron plane at an angle of abou

ONSLAUGHT OF THE "MERRIMACK.”

361

This little vessel, full of the most destructive power, was called by the inventor The Monitor. She too was completed at the beginning of March, and when General Wool, at Fortress Monroe, and Captain Marston, the commander of the squadron in Hampton Roads, informed the authorities at Washington that the Merrimack was ready for action, the Monitor was ordered to proceed to the expected scene of her performance.

• 1862.

At a little before noon on Saturday, the 8th of March," the dreaded Merrimack was seen coming down the Elizabeth River toward Hampton Roads, accompanied by two ordinary gun-boats. At the same time, doubtless by pre-concert, two other Confederate gun-boats had come down from Richmond and made their appearance in the James River, a short distance above Newport-Newce. The sailing frigate Congress, commanded by Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, and the sloop of war Cumberland, Lieutenant George M. Morris in temporary command, were lying in the mouth of the James River, off Newport-Newce. Toward these the Merrimack moved. The flag-ship of the squadron (Roanoke), Captain John Marston, and the steam frigate Minnesota, Captain Van Brunt, were lying at Fortress Monroe, several miles distant. These were signaled to come to the assistance of the menaced vessels. They could not reach them in time to serve them much. The Merrimack, with her ports closed, paid no attention to the heavy shot from her intended victims, for they were turned away by her armor, as harmless as so many beans.

The Merrimack pushed right on in the face of the storm, and struck the Cumberland such a tremendous blow with her beak, under her starboard fore-channels, that a chasm was opened through which water flowed sufficient to drown the powder-magazine in thirty minutes. At the same time she opened her ports and delivered a most destructive fire. The Cumberland fought desperately in this death-grasp with the monster, and the conflict continued until half-past three o'clock, when the water had risen to her main hatchway, and she began to careen. Morris then gave the Merrimack a parting fire, and ordered his men to jump overboard and save themselves. The dead, and the sick and wounded, who could not be moved, to the number of about one hundred, were left on board, and these went down with her a little while afterward, in fifty-four feet of water.

The top-mast of the Cumber

ten degrees. The deck, lying flush with the sides of the upper hull, was also armored and made bomb-proof, and nothing was seen on it but the tower or citadel (turret, it is technically termed), the wheel-house, and a box covering the smoke-stack. The insurgents spoke of the vessel as a “Yankee cheese-box set on a plank."

The only entrance into the vessel that boarders of it could find was from the top of the turret, and then only one man at a time could descend. That turret was made of eight thicknesses of one-inch iron plate, so overlapped that at no spot was there more than one inch thickness of joint. The roof was of plate iron, perforated and shell proof, and placed on wrought iron beams six inches down the cylinder. In this was a sliding hatch to give light, and allow the employment of musketry if the vessel should be boarded. The turret was turned by a contrivance connected with the double-cylinder engine that propelled the vessel, and so placed that the governor could control its motion in taking aim. The two heavy guns, as seen in the engraving on the preceding page, moved on wrought iron slides across the base of the turret, on well-fitting carriages, and their muzzles were run out into the port-holes with ease. Such was the strange weapon of war destined to measure strength with the Merrimack.

1 To Captain Fox, the Assistant-Secretary of the Navy, Ericsson wrote when proposing this name, that it would admonish the insurgents that their batteries on banks of rivers would no longer be barriers to the passage of the Union forces, and that it would prove a severe monitor to the leaders of the rebellion. He also said it would be a monitor that would suggest to the Lords of the English Admiralty the impropriety of completing their four steel-clad ships, then on the stocks, at the cost of three and a half millions of dollars apiece. The Congress carried fifty guns, and the Cumberland twenty-four guns of heavy caliber.

362 DESTRUCTION OF THE “CUMBERLAND” AND “CONGRESS."

land remained a little above the water, with her flag flying from its peak.' The writer saw that spar, yet above the water, near Newport-Newce, in the spring of 1865, when on his way to Richmond, just after its evacuation by the Confederate troops.

2

While the Merrimack was destroying the Cumberland, her assistant gun-boats were assailing the Congress. That vessel fought her foes right gallantly until the Cumberland went down, when, with the help of the Zouave, she was run aground, under cover of the strong batteries at Newport-Newce. There the Merrimack also assailed her, sending raking shot through her, while the Congress could reply only with her stern guns, one of which was soon dismounted by the Merrimack's shot, and the other had the muzzle knocked off. The gallant Lieutenant Smith, Acting-Master Moore, and Pilot William Rhodes, with nearly half of her crew, were soon killed or wounded. Her hull was set on fire, and she had not a gun to bring to bear on her assailants. Further resistance would have been folly, and at half-past four Lieutenant Pendergrast hauled down her flag. She was formally taken possession of by a Confederate officer, when a tug came alongside to take off the remainder of the crew, that she might be immediately burned. The batteries on shore drove off the tug, when the Merrimack again opened upon the battered vessel, notwithstanding a white flag was flying over her in token of surrender. After giving her a few shells, the ram proceeded to attack the Minnesota, that had come up, and, during this absence of the terrible monster, the crew of the ruined vessel escaped. The Merrimack returned at dark, and set the Congress on fire with hot shot. While burning, her guns went off one by one, and at midnight her magazine, containing five tons of powder, exploded with a terrible noise and utterly destroyed her. Only one-half of her crew of four hundred and thirty-four men responded to the call of their names next morning at Newport-Newce."

We have noticed the attack on the Minnesota. Flag-Officer Marston had quickly responded to the signal for aid from the Cumberland and Congress. His own ship was disabled in its machinery, but, towed by two tugs, it was started for the expected scene of action. At the same time the Minnesota (steam frigate) was ordered to hasten in the same direction. Her main-mast was crippled by a shot sent from Sewell's Point when she was passing, and when within a mile and a half of Newport-Newce she ran aground. There

1 Lieutenant Morris to Commander Radford, March 9, 1862. There were 376 souls on board the Cumberland when she went into action. Of these, 117 were lost and 23 were missing. The gallantry of her officers and crew was the theme of great praise, and painting and poetry celebrated their heroism. Lieutenant Morris, who was commanding in the absence of Captain Radford, was the recipient of special commendations from the Secretary of the Navy, in a letter to him on the 21st March. Just a week later, twelve citizens of Philadelphia, all personal strangers to him, presented to Lieutenant Morris, at the house of R. W. Leaming, an elegant sword, saying, in a letter to him, that it could have no worthier recipient than the brave sailor who fought his ship while a plank floated, fired his last broadside in sinking, and went down with his flag flying at the peak." On the sword was the motto in Latin, "I sink, but never surrender." The citizens who presented the sword were Joseph R. Ingersoll, Charles D. Meigs, M. D., Horace Binney, Jr., J. S. Clark Hare, Thomas A. Biddle, J. Fisher Leaming, Ellwood Wilson. Lewis A. Scott, Clement Biddle, George W. Norris, J. Forsyth Meigs, Robert W. Leaming.

2 McKean Buchanan, brother of the commander of the Merrimack, was an officer on board the Congress, and was in charge of the berth-deck during the terrible struggle. In a letter to the Secretary of War afterward, he said, "I thank God I did some service to my country."

3 It is supposed that a capital object in this raid of the Merrimack was to destroy these two vessels, and seize the National camp at Newport-Newce. During the conflict, many shells were thrown into that camp. Aware of the danger that threatened it, General Wool had early forwarded re-enforcements, by land, from Fortress Monroe.