Part 5 (1/2)
Havens, the old lady then being ninety-eight years of age.
It may be interesting to recall that it was Captain Reid who, about the year 1817, designed the present flag of the United States, which for a time had been altered to fifteen stripes to designate the number of States to which the country had increased. On the suggestion of Captain Reid the number was again reduced to thirteen, and the addition of the States designated by the number of stars in the blue field. This was adopted by Act of Congress on April 4, 1818, and the first flag that was flung to the breeze, under the new law, was made by Mrs. Reid, the wife of the gallant Captain, the stars in the blue field being arranged at that time in the shape of a constellation const.i.tuting one great star.
Besides the glory which Captain Reid achieved through his wonderful exploit at Fayal--all the more wonderful if it is remembered that he and his men were volunteer seamen, untrained in the regular navy of the United States--he had rendered his country a service far greater even than this feat of arms. It so happened that the s.h.i.+ps of Commodore Lloyd were bound for the Gulf of Mexico to a.s.sist in the attack upon New Orleans; but by reason of the injury and demoralization inflicted on them by Captain Reid they were delayed long enough to prevent their co-operating with the British General, Sir Edward Packenham, in an earlier attack upon New Orleans, as originally contemplated, when General Jackson was not prepared to meet and defeat the enemy; the consequence of which might have been the loss to the United States of the entire Province of Louisiana, which had only a decade before been acquired from France.
Captain Reid was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on August 25, 1783, and died at the venerable age of seventy-eight at New York on January 28, 1861, on the very eve of our great Civil War, having enjoyed many honors, among them an appointment as Warden of the Port of New York.
Not only on account of the extraordinary character of the fight itself, but also on account of its indirect consequences, in a.s.sisting to bring the War of 1812 to a close, is this painting of the greatest interest.
It measures full up to the excellence of the other numbers of the series, notwithstanding the immediate subject was not one which presented the most graphic material for the brush of the painter. Mr.
Moran chose the most thrilling incident of the fight in depicting the firing of the brig on the approaching row-boats of the enemy. This he has accomplished with consummate skill. He has herein, as in all his other battle scenes on the water, avoided the portrayal of carnage and destruction of human life in lurid colors as is the custom with most painters. He has left these abhorrent scenes to the imagination, and has thereby rendered his pictures, while suggesting all the dreadful accompaniments of warfare, chaste, and free from scenes which are revolting to the feelings.
The picture is perfect in itself, in its representation of the position of the ”Armstrong,” swayed, as it evidently is, through the powerful blasts from its own twenty-four pounder--the fire of the rifles from the men in the British row-boats--the buildings on the sh.o.r.e in the background on the left, with the suggestion of the hills on which the town is built and the British s.h.i.+ps in the offing on the right--with the rising moon in the distance--and the sh.o.r.es of Fayal dimly defined upon the horizon, extending, as they do in fact, with their two widening arms around the harbor.
IRON VERSUS WOOD Sinking of the c.u.mberland by the Merrimac
(_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862_)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
XI.
IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE c.u.mBERLAND BY THE MERRIMAC.
_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862._[N]
The t.i.tle of this picture suggests not only the unequal character of the fight which the wooden s.h.i.+p ”c.u.mberland” fought against the iron-clad ”Merrimac,” the first iron-clad that ever sailed in American waters, but also recalls to mind the contrast between the steel-armored battles.h.i.+ps of the navies of the world of to-day and the wooden hulks which prevailed up to that time. It is a long span of time from the battle of brave Captain Reid in the harbor of Fayal in 1814 to the year 1861, but during that half century little progress had been made in supplying the s.h.i.+ps of our navy with protecting devices, as there had likewise been little occasion for naval warfare. In fact, outside of the Mexican War and fights with the Indians, the country was at peace with itself as well as with the outside world, and it was not until the great struggle for the preservation of the Union called the whole country to arms, both on sea and land, that the opportunity was again presented for the shedding of additional l.u.s.tre on our naval history.
The most thrilling and startling of all the events on the sea, during this sanguinary conflict, followed when, at noon on March 8, 1862, a novel craft, such as had never been seen before, was cut loose from her moorings in Norfolk, and, after having steamed down the Elizabeth River, was seen to head boldly for Newport News, where lay the United States frigate ”Congress” of fifty guns, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, and the twenty-four gun sloop of war ”c.u.mberland,” in charge of Lieutenant George U. Morris during the temporary absence of its commander, William Radford, two of the fleet of national s.h.i.+ps, all riding at anchor in fancied security, without a thought of the death and destruction which the appearance of the stranger portended. It was an odd-looking craft--the ”Merrimac,” as it is generally called--more like a house afloat than a war s.h.i.+p, and the officers of the Federal s.h.i.+ps were at first inclined to belittle its importance. The undertaking of the ”Merrimac” itself (or ”Virginia,” as she was called by the Confederates) was one of great courage, the vessel in its last stages having but just been converted into an iron-clad, in great haste, out of the hulk of a sunken old style man-of-war (the ”Merrimac”), which had been raised by the Confederates. The experiment was a new one; the men had not been drilled; its armament had never been tested, and its commander, Commodore Buchanan, had only recently arisen from a sick-bed.
He had been a Union officer in the regular navy, and as such had placed the entire naval service under great obligations in being the first to have located the Naval Academy at Annapolis under a commission from the Secretary of the Navy. When it was realized by the commanders of the American s.h.i.+ps that the ”Merrimac” was steaming towards them in dead earnest there was hurried preparation for the impending conflict, and as she approached the ”c.u.mberland” and the ”Congress” they opened fire on the huge craft, but their heavy projectiles glanced from her as if they were paper b.a.l.l.s. About 2:30 P.M. the ”Merrimac,” then within easy range, opened fire on the ”c.u.mberland,” doing much damage. The two Federal s.h.i.+ps, which were only about one hundred feet away, then gave the ”Merrimac” full broadsides, but without the slightest effect, and the latter craft mercilessly sent four sh.e.l.ls cras.h.i.+ng into the ”Congress,” notwithstanding that Commodore Buchanan had a brother, McKean Buchanan, paymaster on the ”Congress,”--a harrowing ill.u.s.tration of the horrifying encounters among the closest kindred in civil warfare.
After disabling the ”Congress,” the ”Merrimac” directed her attention to the ”c.u.mberland,” and under a full head of steam her iron prow or ram, which projected four feet, struck the Federal s.h.i.+p ”nearly at right angles under the fore rigging in the starboard fore channels.” I quote further from Maclay's ”History of the Navy”: ”The shock was scarcely felt in the iron-clad, but in the 'c.u.mberland' it was terrific. The s.h.i.+p heeled over to port and trembled as if she had struck a rock under full sail, while the iron prow of the 'Merrimac' crushed through her side and left a yawning chasm. In backing out of the 'c.u.mberland,' the 'Merrimac'
left her iron prow inside the doomed s.h.i.+p. Following up the blow by the discharge of her bow gun, she backed clear of the wreck. In response to a demand for surrender, Lieutenant Morris defiantly answered, 'Never!
I'll sink alongside.' * * * * The scene in the 'c.u.mberland' soon became awful. One sh.e.l.l, bursting in the sick bay, killed or wounded four men in their cots. More than a hundred of the crew very soon were killed or wounded; the c.o.c.kpit was crowded; the decks were slippery with blood and were strewn with the dead and dying, while the inrus.h.i.+ng waters and the rapid settling of the s.h.i.+p too plainly indicated that she would soon go to the bottom. In order to prevent the helpless wounded on the berth deck from being drowned, they were lifted up on racks and mess chests, and as the s.h.i.+p settled more and more they were removed from this temporary refuge and carried on deck and placed amids.h.i.+p. This was all that their s.h.i.+pmates could do for them, and when the s.h.i.+p finally went down they perished in her.”
After sinking the ”c.u.mberland,” the ”Merrimac” again turned on the ”Congress” with her entire broadside and, owing to her own impervious character, soon got the Federal s.h.i.+p into such condition, notwithstanding the heroic defence of her men under Lieutenant Smith, who soon was killed, that she had to surrender, and thereafter caught fire from the hot shot of the enemy and was destroyed. The ”Merrimac,”
now under the command of Lieutenant Jones, a rifle ball having struck both Commodore Buchanan and Flag-Lieutenant Minor, not yet satisfied with the destruction which she had wrought, then turned her attention to the remaining Federal s.h.i.+ps, the ”Minnesota,” ”St. Lawrence” and ”Roanoke,” and after having, with the a.s.sistance of some accompanying Confederate gunboats, played havoc especially with the ”Minnesota,”
about seven o'clock in the evening, owing to the ebbing tide, turned her head towards Sewell's Point, where she anch.o.r.ed for the night, with the intention of renewing her dread work on the following morning, after one of the most disastrous days in the history of the Federal navy.
In selecting the destruction of the ”c.u.mberland” by the ”Merrimac” as the subject of this painting, the artist showed his usual good judgment.
It was one of the earliest as well as most startling incidents of the entire war, and in its effect in revolutionizing the construction not only of our s.h.i.+ps, but those of the world, easily holds first place in all naval history. The picture is wonderfully painted and dramatically handled and is considered by some critics the most interesting of the series.
The huge, truncated bulk of the Confederate ram is shown in the act of plunging her prow through the wooden hull of her opponent in the teeth of a broadside of fire and sh.e.l.l. The contrast of colors and values is forcibly expressed; the black soft coal smoke from the single stack of the ”Merrimac” drifts forward and envelopes her antagonist as the cuttle-fish darkens the water that it may more easily destroy its victim.