126 CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. [1862. rendered. Farragut sent two hundred and fifty marines into the city to take formal possession and guard the public buildings. Butler arrived there with his forces on the 1st of May, and it was then turned over to him, and it remained in Federal possession throughout the war. His administration of the captured city, from May to December, was the subject of much angry controversy; but no one denies that he reduced its turbulence to order, made it cleaner than it had ever been before, and averted a pestilence. Of his famous "woman order," issued when the annoyances of the women had culminated in their spitting in the faces of two officers, he was afterward able to write: "From that day, no woman has either insulted or annoyed any live soldier or officer, and of a certainty no soldier has insulted any woman." At the first news of this achievement the people of the North hardly appreciated what had been accomplished; many of their newspapers told them that the fleet "had only run by the forts." But as they gradually learned the particulars, and saw that in fighting obstructions, fire-rafts, forts, rams, and fleet, and conquering them all, Farragut had done what neither Nelson nor any other great admiral had ever done before, they felt that the country had produced a worthy companion for the victor of Donelson, and was equal to all emergencies, afloat or ashore. CHAPTER VIII. THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC. WHILE the great naval expedition was approaching New Orleans, the waters of Hampton Roads, from which it had sailed, were the scene of a battle that revolutionized the naval armaments of the world. When at the outbreak of the war the navy-yard at Norfolk, Va., was abandoned, with an attempt at its destruction, the steam-frigate "Merrimac " was set on fire at the wharf. Her upper works were burned, and her hull sank. There had been long hesitation about removing any of the valuable property from this navy-yard, because the action of Virginia was uncertain, and it was hoped that a mark of confidence in her people would tend to keep her in the Union. The day that Sumter was fired upon, peremptory orders had been issued for the removal of the "Merrimac " to Philadelphia, and steam was raised and every preparation made for her sailing. But the officer in command, for some unexplained reason, would not permit her to move, and two days later she was burned. Within two months the Confederates were at work upon her. They raised the hull, repaired the machinery, and covered it with a steep roof of wrought iron five inches thick, with a lining 128 THE MERRIMAC. [1862. of oak seven inches thick. The sides were also plated with iron, and the bow was armed with an iron ram, something like a huge ploughshare. In the water she had the appearance of a house submerged to the eaves, with an immense gun looking out at each of ten dormer windows. But all this could not be done in a day, especially where skilled workmen were scarce, and it was March, 1862, before she was ready for action. The command was given to Franklin Buchanan, who had resigned a commission in the United States. navy. On the 8th of March, accompanied by two gunboats, she went out to raise the blockade of James and Elizabeth rivers by destroying the wooden war-vessels in Hampton Roads. Her first victim was the frigate "Cumberland," which gave her a broadside that would have riddled a wooden vessel through and through. Some of the shot entered her open ports, killed or wounded nineteen men, and broke two of her guns; but all that struck the armor bounded off like peas. Rifled shot from the "Merrimac" raked the "Cumberland," and then she ran into her so that her iron prow cut a great gash in the side. The "Cumberland" at once began to settle; but the crew stood by their guns, firing broadside after broadside without producing any impression on the iron monster, and receiving in return shells and solid shot that made sickening havoc. The commander, Lieutenant Morris, refused to surrender; and at the end of forty-five minutes, when the water was at the gun-deck, the crew leaped 1862.] SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND. 129 overboard and with the help of the boats got ashore, while the frigate heeled over and sank to the bottom. Her topmasts projected above the surface, and her flag was flying. While this was going on, three Confederate steamers came down and attacked the "Congress" with such effect that her commander tried to run her ashore. Having finished the "Cumberland," the "Merrimac came up and opened a deliberate attack on the Congress," and finally set her on fire, when the crew escaped in their boats. She burned for several hours, and in the night blew up. Of the 130 THE MONITOR. [1862. other National vessels in the Roads, one got aground in water too shallow for the "Merrimac " to approach her, and the others were not drawn into the fight. The next morning the "Merrimac " came down from Norfolk again, to finish up the fleet, but found that a new antagonist had just arrived. When they first saw it, her men called it "a cheese box on a raft." The idea of a revolving tower or turret for heavy guns was at least half a century old, and had been set forth by several inventors. But it was never put into practical use till the National Government contracted with John Ericsson to build an iron-clad with such a turret and a deck rising hardly more than a foot above the water. She was built in about a hundred days, at Brooklyn, N.Y., was named "Monitor," and was placed under the command of Captain John L. Worden. He hurried her down to Hampton Roads, in a stormy and dangerous passage, and on the very morning after his arrival met and fought the "Merrimac." Buchanan had been wounded in the action of the previous day, and Lieutenant Jones now commanded the Confederate iron-clad. The " Monitor" placed herself between the wooden ships and their enemy, and a fight of four hours. ensued. The shot of the "Merrimac" glanced off as harmlessly from the "Monitor's" turret and decks as the "Cumberland's" broadsides had from hers. One shell, however, struck the little square pilot-house at an instant when Captain Worden had his eyes at the sight-hole. The explosion tem |