along, as if conscious of superior strength, and as she passed the Congress, delivered a single broadside into the doomed. ship, then leaving her to be attacked by the smaller vessels, made directly for the Cumberland. When the rebel monster was within two hundred feet of the two frigates, they both discharged their tremendous broadsides against her armor; she quivered a moment under the fearful concussion, but every ball glanced from her sloping shield like hailstones from a slated roof. Not deigning to pay any attention to the fierce, but harmless, assault of the two frigates struggling for life, she rushed straight for her prey. The powerful battery at Newport News opened with all its massive guns at point-blank range, with a power that no mailed structure previously known would have been able to withstand, but these solid shot and shell glanced harmlessly away. On rushed the Merrimac with increasing speed, and not a soul on board to be seen, and with all the power of her tremendous weight, plunged headlong into the side of the helpless frigate. The iron prow struck the Cumberland amidship, crushing in her side with a horrible gash. Then reversing her engine, and careless of the shower of cannon-balls rattling against her impervious mail, she 'retraced her path a few rods for another butt. As she drew back she turned her broadside to the disabled frigate and hurled into her bosom a terrible volley of shot and shell, that tore through the crowded vessel, hurling her batteries about her decks and scattering mutilated bodies in every direction. Again, with full headway, crowding on all steam, the Merrimac made another plunge into the Cumberland, and striking her upon the former wound, crushed in the whole side, snapping the massive oaken beams, strong as nature and art could make them, as if they had been but a lattice of dry reeds. But the Cumberland never surrendered; the majestic old frigate sank beneath the waves with colors flying, every man at his post, and every unsubmerged gun hurling defiance at the foe. In forty-five minutes the work was done, and over

Virginia, who had been allowed to remain in undisturbed quiet, and thus divert the energies of the nation from the West.

Upon the evacuation of the Gosport Navy Yard, near Norfolk, the United States officers scuttled and sunk the steam frigate Merrimac. This was one of the most magnificent ships in the American navy; a forty-gun frigate of four thousand tons burden, built in 1856, and considered the finest specimen of naval architecture then afloat. She was two hundred and eighty-one feet long, fifty-two feet broad, and drew twenty-three feet of water. Her engines were eight hundred horse power, and drove a two-bladed propeller, fourteen feet in diameter; her armament consisted of twenty-four nine-inch shell guns, fourteen eight-inch, and two one hundred pound pivot guns.

This magnificent vessel was raised by the rebels, who, being weak as a maritime power, devoted much attention. to the construction of iron-clad rams; she was cut down, leaving only the massive and solid hull, over which they constructed a sloping shield of railroad iron, firmly plated together, and extending two feet under the water. In appearance, the ship was much like the slanting roof of a house placed on a hull, with the ends of the vessel, fore and aft, projecting a few feet beyond the roof. Nothing appeared above this iron shield but a short smoke-stack and two flag staffs. The fact that a mailed battery of the most formidable character was in preparation, was well known at the North, and her appearance on the waters below Norfolk was daily predicted.

About noon of Saturday, the 9th of March, this monster was seen coming round Craney Island, accompanied by the Jamestown and Yorktown, two other war vessels, followed by quite a little fleet of armed tugs and small craft. The Merrimac, with her imposing retinue in train, headed for Newport News, where there was a garrison of National troops, guarded by the United States sailing frigates Cumberland and Congress. The Merrimac steamed majestically

along, as if conscious of superior strength, and as she passed the Congress, delivered a single broadside into the doomed ship, then leaving her to be attacked by the smaller vessels, made directly for the Cumberland. When the rebel monster was within two hundred feet of the two frigates, they both discharged their tremendous broadsides against her armor; she quivered a moment under the fearful concussion, but every ball glanced from her sloping shield like hailstones from a slated roof. Not deigning to pay any attention to the fierce, but harmless, assault of the two frigates struggling for life, she rushed straight for her prey. The powerful battery at Newport News opened with all its massive guns at point-blank range, with a power that no mailed structure previously known would have been able to withstand, but these solid shot and shell glanced harmlessly away. On rushed the Merrimac with increasing speed, and not a soul on board to be seen, and with all the power of her tremendous weight, plunged headlong into the side of the helpless frigate. The iron prow struck the Cumberland amidship, crushing in her side with a horrible gash. Then reversing her engine, and careless of the shower of cannon-balls rattling against her impervious mail, she retraced her path a few rods for another butt. As she drew back she turned her broadside to the disabled frigate and hurled into her bosom a terrible volley of shot and shell, that tore through the crowded vessel, hurling her batteries about her decks and scattering mutilated bodies in every direction. Again, with full headway, crowding on all steam, the Merrimac made. another plunge into the Cumberland, and striking her upon the former wound, crushed in the whole side, snapping the massive oaken beams, strong as nature and art could make them, as if they had been but a lattice of dry reeds. But the Cumberland never surrendered; the majestic old frigate sank beneath the waves with colors flying, every man at his post, and every unsubmerged gun hurling defiance at the foe. In forty-five minutes the work was done, and over

one hundred dead and wounded bodies of heroic men went down with the broken frigate.

The Merrimac now turned her attention to the Congress. The rebel gunboats Jamestown and Yorktown were hovering about this majestic ship, discharging their shot at long range; the tremendous broadsides of the Congress compelled her unworthy assailants to keep at a respectful distance. The frigate, attempting to escape, unfortunately, grounded, and thus became the more helpless. The Merrimac, fearing the shallowness of the water, did not attempt to crush the Congress with her prow, but deliberately took her position at the distance of about one hundred yards, and discharged broadside after broadside of her one hundred pound shot and shell, raking the ship from stem to stern. At the same time, the whole rebel fleet poured into the crippled frigate a destructive fire of shells and red-hot shot. Under this devouring fire the carnage was awful. Instantly the decks were covered with dismounted guns and fragments of broken batteries, mangled limbs and pools of gory blood. The ship was on fire; her timbers and plank dry as tinder, the fiery billows burst forth with a consuming power wholly irresistible; the wounded and the survivors were being consumed by the spreading flames, when, to save the brave men from a terrible death, the officers, with tears and anguish, hauled down the flag and surrendered the burning wreck. The officers of the Congress were made prisoners; the crew escaped to the shore in small boats. The noble ship burned for hours, illuminating the scene for miles around the harbor, until about midnight, the flames reached the magazine, and, with an explosion that moved the waters and caused the earth to tremble, the fiery fragments of the frigate were thrown into the air and covered the sea. When the flames were quenched beneath the waves, darkness, gloomy and terrible, shrouded the dismal scene.

The United States ships Minnesota and St. Lawrence were both in the Roads, aground, lying helpless, waiting to be consumed by the devouring monster. Night was rapidly

approaching, and, as if glutted with a surfeit of victory, the Merrimac returned to her position behind Craney Island, where she prepared to continue her work of destruction the next morning.

As the sun went down that evening and night came on, every heart in the fleet and in the coast defences throbbed with despair. The Merrimac was invulnerable. She could do what she pleased, bidding defiance to the massive guns on both sea and land. After destroying every vessel of the fleet, and reducing every fortress on the coast, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Portland were the glittering prizes within her grasp. Not only at Hampton Roads, but throughout the North, consternation was pictured in every loyal face.

At ten o'clock that night, two small steamers were seen coming in from the sea, having in tow a singular looking craft, resembling a raft with a small round tower, a few feet high, on its center. Could the watchful sentinel on the walls of Fortress Monroe have known, what it was that he saw approaching the ramparts he guarded-as the Spanish sailor, exclaiming "Land! Land!" from the fore-topmast of the Pinta, electrified the lost mariners on Columbus' despairing fleet-so he, calling out to the agitated and sleepless garrison "Deliverance! Deliverance! God defends the right!" might have calmed their agitation and filled their hearts with hope. The MONITOR was approaching; unordered, unowned by the Government; the experiment of Captain Ericsson, a private citizen, residing in New York. The untried vessel arrived opportunely, but by chance, in Hampton Roads. The situation of the fleet was immediately made known to Lieutenant Worden, commanding the Monitor. The vessel was put in order for a fight, and awaited the dawn of morning, and the approach of the Merrimac. Sunday morning came-the sun rose with unusual brightness. Anxious eyes, from every vessel and along the shore, gazed in the direction of Sewall's Point, where the Merrimac and her consorts were at anchor.