XXX.

THE BATTLE OF THE IRON CLADS.

A NEW era in modern warfare was initiated when the celebrated Merrimac and Monitor closed in conflict, and, after a four hours' fight, with guns of heavy calibre, drew off comparatively uninjured. It was a proof of the resistant power of an iron mail and of the ability to adapt it to vessels of war. This demonstrated fact quite revolutionized the theory and art of naval batteries; and, as such, the contest of the two vessels named excited the most profound interest in Europe, as well as in our midst.

The honor of constructing the first operating iron-clad belongs to the Confederates, for even before the Merrimac was in service, in her new estate, the rebels had constructed and brought into use iron steam batteries and a "ram" at New Orleans and on the Mississippi river. It is true that the flotilla ordered by Fremont, in the fall of 1861, contemplated steamers with iron plated upper works; and that Foote's flotilla, operating at Forts Henry and Donelson, carly in February, 1862, embraced several boats thickly plated above water line; but, no thoroughly impregnable craft was afloat until the Merrimac and Monitor experiments-the latter growing out of the former, as a naval necessity or counterpoise.

At the special session of the Federal Congress, July, 1861, the Secretary of the Navy called especial attention to the subject of iron-clad vessels, and $1,500,000 was appropriated for the experiment, as it was then regarded. In answer to the Department's advertisement for proposals, August 6th, 1861, seventeen propositions were filed-of which the examining board selected three for a test-among them the plan

of Captain John Ericsson, of New York-the well-known inventor of the screw or propeller engine, the caloric engine, etc., etc. As soon as the necessary papers could be drawn out and signed, the Ericsson iron steam battery was contracted for (October 4th, 1861). This vessel was launchel January 30th, and ordered to be completed with all possible haste,

as the Merrimac is nearly ready at Norfolk, and we wish to send her there," telegraphed the Secretary of the Navy to the Monitor's constructors.

This Merrimac was the United States steam frigate of the same name, which at the general destruction of the Gosport Navy Yard, April 20th, 1861, was fired and sunk, but not destroyed. She was a magnificent craft-probably one of the finest naval structures afloat-whose needless abandonment had been a source of mortification to the U. S. navy. The frigate was injured in her upper works by the incendiary fire, but her hull was well preserved; and the rebel Government, at the suggestion of eminent mechanics, determined to raise and use the wreek as the substructure for a naval iron shot proof steam battery. June 10th, the Confederate War Department directed Lieutenant John M. Brooke to prepare specifications for "an iron-clad war vessel," and that officer soon submitted his plans-having previously canvassed the subject and brought it to the attention of the rebel Government. His general designs were approved, and from them sprung the "monster" which, on March 8th, moved unscathed around Hampton Roads under fire of the heaviest guns, carrying destruction before her, invulnerable in her iron armor and irresistible in her powers for harm. March 9th witnessed her discomfiture, however, by a craft a pigmy in size but as resistless as a thunderbolt. The Federal Navy Department had not been unwatchful of the rebel experiment, but had so anticipated its results as to produce a work more full of novelty and more effective as an agent of defense or of attack.

This vessel, rechristened by the Confederate Navy Department the Virginia, after having been announced for several

weeks as ready, finally made her advent, on the morning of March 8th, in the Hampton Roads waters, accompanied by two armed steamers as tenders-the two steamers also being stolen property. Having hove in sight the Merrimac at once made for the old wooden frigate Congress, and the sloop-ofwar Cumberland, which, for weeks, had been lying off the mouth of Elizabeth river, awaiting the appearance of the "new fangled concern," on which they might try the power of their heavy guns. The Cumberland rode at anchor, cff Newport News, about three hundred yards from shore, and the Congress, also at anchor, lay about two hundred yards to the south. The first-named, having a very heavy armament of 9 and 10-inch Dahlgren guns and a crew of about 450 men, was the most formidable antagonist; at her the Merrimac drove, bearing down past the Congress, giving her a broadside as she passed, in reply to the frigate's own guns, which opened when the "crocodile" came within range. The broadside showed the Merrimac's armament to be heavy, and the range being short, the shot did great damage. Direct upon the Cumberland-which her commander, Lieutenant Geo. M. Morris, had warped so as to use her broadside guns -the iron-clad bore, the rain of shot and shell from the frigate's heavy pieces dropping from her ribbed roof like pebbles. One bow gun from the Merrimac answered, the solid shot tearing through the frigate's bulwarks and killing five men. Six or eight broadsides the old war-ship put into her antagonist with little effect, when the crisis came. At full speed the Merrimac's "ram" struck the frigate under the bluff of the port bow, starboard of the main chains, opening a hole below water line, about four feet in diameter, while the upper works were crushed by the iron-clad's stem. This shock was quickly followed by the enemy's bow and quarter guns, which added to the first consternation by a most appalling slaughter on the thickly-manned decks of the ship. Ten men at one gun were torn in pieces, and the dead and dying strewed the whole upper floor. Yet, not a moment did the sloop's guns intermit their almost harmless thunder;

amid the shrieks of horror below decks and pain above, the shouts of command, and the rush of waters into the mortal wound in the hull, the men fought on, with not a thought of surrender. Slowly the Merrimac drew off, still deliberately delivering her terrible fire, making the bloody boards more ensanguined at every discharge. It was a hideous Golgotha of human sacrifice, which the soul shudders to contemplate. The flow of water into the hold put the ship's bows down. In five minutes' time it was up to the sick bay on the berth deck. There lay those too ill to help themselves, and the wounded and dying first brought in from above all to see the waters coming up slowly around them, and to count the minutes of their doom. . It soon came. With a slight stagger the vessel settled; the water had filled all below the gun deck, and the hundred sufferers were at peace. Still, the roar and din of battle went on above. Gun answered gun in rapid succession, only to add to the horror of that carnival of slaughter. There was no yield to the frenzied crew, who saw death before them and under them without a thought of it. At half-past three, with a heavy lurch to port, the noble old ship went down, head first, the after guns firing a salute, as they disappeared beneath the waves, to the stars and stripes which disappeared with them. All the dead and wounded went down; and of those still at work upon the decks less than half were rescued by the small boats which at once put off from shore. Of the four hundred and fifty, not one-third lived to know that the story of their glory was repeated by every loyal tongue in the land.

The Congress, meanwhile, was kept in range both by the Merrimac's guns and by those of her steam tenders, the Jamestown and Patrick Henry, and suffered to some extent, but kept her guns in play. But, perceiving the result to the sloop-of-war, the frigate made for shallow water, by the aid of the little gunboat Zouave, and grounded within easy reach of the Merrimac's guns. As a consequence the decks were raked fore and aft by the latter, while one of the steam tenders

kept up a sharp fire on the frigate's starboard quarter. Every piece was finally disabled; the ship being on fire, and Lieutenant Commanding Joseph B. Smith, killed, Lieutenant Pendergast, second in command, hauled down the flag to save further slaughter. The ship at once was boarded by an officer from the Merrimac, but, his tug being fired upon by rifles on the shore, after receiving Pendergast's sword, he returned to the iron-clad, and she again opened her guns, with solid shot and shell, upon the helpless frigate, at the same time shelling the shore from whence the rifle-shots had come. After a few shots, she steamed away to close in with the steam frigate Minnesota, which, in running up to share in the conflict, had grounded three miles away, and about seven miles above Fortress Monroc. The fear of also touching bottom doubtless kept the Merrimac from the contemplated rush. She fired at a distance with but slight effectonly one shot perforating the frigate's bows. The Patrick Henry and Jamestown, however, taking position on the Minnesota's port bow and stern, did considerable damage with their rifled pieces, but were soon driven off by the Union tars' fine gunnery, not before doing much damage, killing six and wounding nineteen of the crew. About seven o'clock, satisfied with her day's work, the iron enemy drew off to recuperate for her morrow's task, which now seemed to be to clear Hampton Roads of every craft afloat. Then she could steam away up the Potomac to carry destruction even up to the Federal capital.

There were heavy hearts in and around the Roads that night. Not a person, from Flag Officer Marston down, who did not realize their utter helplessness before the invulnerable power of that single craft. Daylight would, doubtless, witness the destruction of the noble Minnesota; then the frigates Roanoke and St. Lawrence must follow her fate or run away-a contingency none deemed possible, for all had determined to fight their ships to the death. Even Lieutenant Pendergast was blamed for hauling down his flag-so fiery was the spirit which animated all hearts.