CHAPTER XIX.

MERRIMACK AND MONITOR.

IRON-CLADS.-THE MERRIMACK.-SHE STEAMS TO HAMPTON ROADS.-AN IRON STORM.-SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND.-THE CONGRESS SURRENDERS.-THE MINNESOTA IN DANGER.-THE MERRIMACK LEAVES HER PREY.-A DISMAL NIGHT.-ARRIVAL OF THE MONITOR.-A CHEESEBOX ON A PLANK.-EXPLOSION OF THE CONGRESS.-A SUNDAY VISIT.-THE MONITOR IN WAITING. THE CHEESE-BOX IS MADE OF IRON-LIEUTENANT WORDEN WOUNDED.-THE MERRIMACK RETREATS.-THE MINNESOTA SAVED.-HONORS TO ERICSSON.-JOE'S DEAD.

THE first iron-clad vessels built during the war were those

used on the Western rivers. Among these were the St. Louis, Carondelet, Cairo, Mound City, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Pittsburg, built by James B. Eads, a civil engineer of St. Louis, who has since become famous as the constructor of the great bridge across the Mississippi at St. Louis and of the work for deepening the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi. The Confederates had early turned their attention to the building of armored vessels, and had met the Union gunboats with the Manassas and several other iron-clad rams and gunboats. They had also begun to build some larger and still more formidable war-ships, such as the Louisiana and the Mississippi at New Orleans and the Virginia at Norfolk, the last-named being better known as the Merrimack.

It will be remembered that the Merrimack, one of the finest steam-frigates in the United States Navy, had been set on fire and scuttled when the Gosport Navy Yard was abandoned in April, 1861. The noble vessel sank to the bottom before the flames had injured her much, and the Confederates soon after raised her, cut down her upper deck and built upon her a very strong timber covering, with sloping sides, like the roof of a house. The outside of this was plated with iron thick enough to be proof against shot from the most powerful guns then in Her bow and stern were both under water, and her bow was made sharp and fitted with a cast-iron beak, to be used as a ram. This novel war vessel, which was finished early in March, 1862, and renamed the Virginia, though her new name did not stick to her, was armed with ten heavy guns, four on each side, one in the bow, and one in the stern, put under the

use.

ing fallen, and the ship being on fire in several places, her colors were hauled down. Some of her men were taken prisoners by one of the Confederate steamers, and some escaped to the shore; but many were killed and wounded, and only about half of her crew of four hundred and thirty-four answered the roll-call next morning.

But where were the three frigates which had left Fortress Monroe to go to the aid of these unfortunate ships? They had grounded in the shallow water, and had watched the unequal struggle more than a mile away, powerless to help. After the destruction of the Cumberland and the Congress, the Merrimack and the gunboats bore down to attack the others. The Roanoke by this time had got off, with the aid of tugs, but her machinery being damaged she returned to Fortress Monroe. The Merrimack drew so much water that she could not get within a mile of the stranded vessels, so she fired shells at them from a distance, the gunboats helping her with their fire. The Minnesota was struck several times, and had many men killed and wounded. At last the St. Lawrence was pulled off by tugs and taken back to Fortress Monroe, but the Minnesota remained fast in the mud. She kept up a fire on the enemy, but without any effect on the armor of the Merrimack, and it seemed as if she must soon suffer the fate of the Congress. But the day was fast waning, and at length about seven o'clock the Confederates left their prey and steamed slowly back toward Norfolk.

Saturday night was a dismal one at Fortress Monroe, and few eyes closed in sleep. The return of the Merrimack on the morrow was a certainty, and there seemed to be little chance of saving the Minnesota. What the monster would do next was a question which no one could decide. General Wool, the commander of the Fortress, telegraphed to Washington that probably both the Minnesota and the St. Lawrence would be captured, and that it was thought the enemy's vessels would pass the Fortress that night. What would be the next object of attack no one could foresee. But the Merrimack did not appear again that night.

About nine o'clock in the evening a queer-looking vessel came into Hampton Roads, and anchored near the Fortress. It was a novel steam-battery-the now famous Monitor-which

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had been building near New York under the eye of her inventor, John Ericsson, a Swede by birth, but long a resident of the United States. Much had been heard of this vessel, and a great deal had been promised for her by her builder, but when she came into the Roads everybody was disappointed. What could this puny thing do against the great Merrimack, more than five times her tonnage! Her sides were but little above the water, and nothing was to be seen on her deck but a kind of round iron box in the middle, a pilot-house forward, and a small smokestack aft. At a mile's distance she might be taken for a raftindeed, the Confederates well described her when they called her a "Yankee cheese-box on a plank." But when one went on board, her great strength was seen: her deck was plated with shell-proof iron, and her

round box, called a turret, was made of iron plates eight to nine inches thick. Inside this turret, which was made to turn round, were two eleveninch Dahlgren guns, placed side by side, so that both could be fired together at the same object. Ordinary ships have to be turned so as to bring their guns to bear on an enemy, but by revolving the turret of the Monitor her guns could be fired forward, backward, or sideways, without changing the position of the ship. Her bow, too, was made strong and sharp, so that she could ram in the side of an enemy's vessel. This odd-shaped craft had been named by her inventor the Monitor because, he said, he expected that she would be a monitor to the great nations of Europe, and teach them that the days of old-fashioned ships had passed away for

ever.

JOHN ERICSSON.

The authorities at Washington, frightened at the prospect of a visit from the Merrimack, had telegraphed to have the Monitor sent there as soon as she should arrive at Fortress Monroe; but Captain Marston, thinking it important to do what he could to save the rest of the fleet, ordered Lieutenant

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 come 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