CH. XIII. 1862. Chase to his daughter, May 7, 1862. Warden, "Life of 8. P. Chase," It happened by a curious coincidence that President Lincoln, Secretary Chase, and Secretary Stanton started in the evening of the 5th of May for a visit to Fort Monroe. So far as is known it had only a general object: to ascertain by personal observation whether some further vigilance and vigor might not be infused into the operations of the army and navy at that point. Delayed by bad weather on the Potomac, they arrived at their destination on Tuesday night, May 6. Late as it was they immediately proceeded to the steamship Minnesota, and held a conference with Commodore L. M. Goldsborough, the flag-officer, "about the condition of things" and "military and naval movements in connection with the dreaded Merripp. 426, 427. mac." Next day, May 7, the party visited the various places of interest-the Vanderbilt, the Monitor, the ruined village of Hampton, the Rip Raps and Fort Monroe, with doubtless a running council of war among themselves and the naval and military commanders; for two important orders appear to have been given by the President that same Wednesday evening, preparations for executing which were made during the night. In pursuance of these orders, on the morning of Thursday, May 8, the new ironclad Galena with two other Stanton to gunboats were sent up the James River; and a considerable section of the remaining fleet moved across the waters of the bay to an attack on the Confederate Sewall's Point batteries. This was a reconnaissance in force; troops were already embarked in transports to push across and effect a landing if it appeared practicable, with a view to advance on Norfolk. But the cannonade from the Watson, May 8, 1862. W. R. Vol. XI., Part III., p. 153. ships called forth a spirited reply from the rebel CH. XIII. batteries on Sewall's Point, and after a while the Merrimac appeared to take part in the fray. "All the big wooden vessels," writes Chase, who with Lincoln and Stanton witnessed the bombardment from the Rip Raps, "began to haul off. The Monitor and Stevens, however, held their ground. The Merrimac still came on slowly, and in a little while there was a clear sheet of water between her and the Monitor. Then the great rebel terror paused, then turned back, and having finally attained what she considered a safe position, became stationary again." "That was thought to have shown the inability of an attempt to land at Sewall's Point while the Merrimac lay watching it," says Chase, in another letter, and the troops were disembarked from the transports. But all this commotion had stirred up inquiry and elicited information; and a pilot suggested that a landing might be found to the eastward beyond Willoughby Point. Against the general incredulity of the officers, Chase on Friday morning, May 9, took the revenue cutter Miami, on which the party had come from Washington, and a tug, and went on a reconnaissance to the shore indicated. Here, some five or six miles from Fort Monroe, soundings disclosed a feasible landing, undefended by batteries or even pickets, and a boat sent ashore obtained valuable information of passable roads leading to Norfolk. "When I got back to Fort Monroe," continues Chase, "I found the President had been listening to a pilot and studying a chart, and had become impressed with a conviction that there was a nearer landing and Chase to his daughter, "Life of S. P. Chase," p. 428. 1862. CH. XIII. wished to go and see about it on the spot. So we started again and soon reached the shore, taking with us a large boat and some twenty armed soldiers from the Rip Raps. The President and Mr. Stanton were on the tug and I on the Miami. The tug was of course nearest shore, and as soon as she found the water too shoal for her to go farther Chase to his safely, the Rip Raps boat was manned and sent daughter, in... We had again found a good landing, which at the time I supposed to be between two and three miles nearer Fort Monroe, but which proved to be pp. 428-430. only one-half or three-quarters of a mile nearer." May 11, 1862. Warden, "Life of S. P. Chase," It is probable that these opportune discoveries were supplemented by other important information. On the previous evening (of Thursday) a Norfolk tug-boat seized the favorable opportunity to desert from the rebel service and run into Newport News. Its officers reported that Norfolk was being evacuated by the Confederates, and that the two or three thousand troops yet there would probably soon be gone. When therefore the officials and officers were once more assembled at Fort Monroe, an immediate advance to Norfolk was agreed upon, and troops were again embarked on transports and other preparations hurried forward on Friday night. On Saturday morning, May 10, a successful landing and debarkation was effected at the point examined by the President, and General Wool marched to Norfolk with a force of nearly six thousand men. It is easy to glean from the various accounts that there was great want of foresight and confusion in all the military arrangements, and the Secretary of the Treasury, who accompanied the CH. XIII. Viele, in Monthly," advance, was probably gratified by the entirely unexpected rôle of being for once in his life the generalissimo of a military campaign. They met only the merest show of resistance and delay at a burning bridge, which was overcome by an easy detour. By evening they passed through the strong but abandoned intrenchments and received from the Mayor of Norfolk the official surrender of the city. The navy yard at Gosport was in flames, but the heavy guns which armed the earthworks remained as trophies. A military governor was appointed, and protection promised to peaceful inhabitants, and from that time forward Norfolk remained under the authority of the Union flag. The most substantial fruit of the movement soon followed. The officers of the Merrimac observed on Saturday morning, from their moorings in the mouth of Elizabeth River, that the Confederate flag was no longer flying over the Sewall's Point batteries; and investigation during the day proved the landing and march of the Union forces, the precipitate retreat of the rebel troops from all points, and the final surrender and occupation of Norfolk. The unwieldy crocodile-back ironclad was thus caught between two fires. "The ship," reports her commander, "was accordingly put on shore, as near the mainland in the vicinity of Craney Island as possible, and the crew landed. She was then fired, and after burning fiercely, fore and aft, for upward of an hour, blew up a little ments, p. 47. before five on the morning of the 11th." The President receiving the welcome news at the moment of departure for Washington, prolonged his stay to accompany the delighted dignitaries Tatnall, Moore, Vol. V., CH. XIII. and officers on a flying trip up Elizabeth River to the newly captured town, and then the prow of the Miami, on Sunday evening, plowed past Fort Monroe and up the Potomac. "So," writes Chase in conclusion, "has ended a brilliant week's campaign of the President; for I think it quite certain that daughter, if he had not come down Norfolk would still have Chase to his May 11, 1862. Warden, "Life of 8. P. Chase," p. 432. been in possession of the enemy, and the Merrimac as grim and defiant and as much a terror as ever. The whole coast is now virtually ours." 1 Like the Merrimac the Monitor also had a dramatic end. After various services she was, in the following December, sent to sea under sealed orders, and foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras, nearly all the officers and crew, however, being saved by boats from the Rhode Island, which was towing her. Thus the pioneer ships of the new system of iron armor did not long survive their first famous exploit that so astounded the nations of the earth. Other Union ironclads of a different model had joined the Hampton Roads squadron before the destruction of the Merrimac; and before the Monitor went down she had given her name as a generic term to a whole fleet built after her model, her first successor, the monitor Passaic, having already reached the seat of war for active service. 1 The Secretary claims too much for the expedition, in view of the fact that the evacuation of Norfolk and the destruction of the Merrimac had been ordered by the rebel authorities as a consequence of the evacuation of Yorktown. |