because he did not need to do so. He had carefully digested the whole subject, and no form of its presentation could take him by surprise. As he himself was apt to remark when seemingly new things were laid before him, he had "studied that matter," and his action upon it was a foregone conclusion. It was said that a plan had been adopted, but, after all, it was little more than a determination that the army should sail down the Potomac, land on the Virginia side and hunt for something to do. It was agreed upon with Mr. Lincoln that the hunt should be pushed vigorously in the direction of Richmond, and he went down in person to urge and press and aid in every possible way the magnificent "meet" of well-armed

hunters.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.

Monitor and Merrimac-The Story of a Great Invention-Waiting before Yorktown-Civil Supremacy in Danger-A Retreat in Good Order— A Perilous Dilemma-The Army of Virginia-Gen. Pope's Campaign -A New Political Party-One Army Swallowed by Another.

THE movement of the Army of the Potomac had been preceded by a great naval event. On the 8th of March, 1862, the Confederate armored ram Virginia or Merrimac steamed out into Hampton Roads and destroyed several United States shipsof-war. She demonstrated in a few minutes that any wooden or other war ship known to exist was helpless against her. So far as any eyes could see, the Potomac was open to her, Washington city was at her mercy, and the face of military affairs was changed. A kind of Egyptian darkness came down at once, and, for a few hours, men walked around as if they were feeling their way in it.

On the following day occurred the world-famous fight between the Merrimac and the Monitor, the latter being described by the Confederates, as looking like a Yankee cheese-box on a raft. The timely arrival of this revolving gun-tower was as little a matter of human foresight as if she had fallen from the sky, and the nation recovered promptly from its fit of shivering dread. The power of the destroyer was at least neutralized and things could go on somewhat as before. Not upon the sea, indeed; for the naval construction. of all the world was revolutionized in a day and all the armed vessels afloat, except the two which fought in Hampton Roads, became antiquated.

Mr. Lincoln had not foreseen the Merrimac, but he had foreseen the Monitor and her construction, and therefore her presence and service were as much due to him as was her planning to her inventor. When Mr. C. S. Bushnell, to whom the Monitor had been intrusted, and to whom lasting honor is due for his management of the matter, arrived in Washington with the plans and specifications of the proposed vessel, he carried them straightway to the President. Mr. Lincoln comprehended them at once and became deeply interested. He remarked, pleasantly, that he knew but little about ships, but he did understand a flatboat, and this invention was flat enough. He promised to meet Mr. Bushnell at the Navy Department at eleven o'clock the next day and do all he could in securing the adoption of the plan and the construction of a "monitor" for trial. That was precisely what she was built for, no one prophesying what the trial would be. At the hour named he left the White House and walked over to the Navy Department to fulfill his promise. A number of naval officers and other experts were assembled to sit in judgment, and the President listened patiently and silently to their successive expressions of opinion. These were almost unanimously given adversely to the practicability of the plan of vessel proposed. Finally, Rear-Admiral Smith, chairman of the Naval Board in charge of the matter, turned to the President and asked him what he thought of it.

"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "I feel about it a good deal as the fat girl did when she put her foot into her stocking. She thought there was something in it."

There was a laugh, but everybody present understood that Mr. Lincoln was in earnest. Admiral Smith, who had been one of the few who had understood and favored the invention, was glad enough to be sustained by the President, and took it up with energy. Mr. Bushnell and his associates obtained their contract for a trial-monitor and built it, and after its work in Hampton Roads Mr. Lincoln had a right to express strongly,