Part 15 (1/2)
The news was true. The Confederates had cut down the ”Merrimac” nearly to the water's edge and built a solid deck over her at this level. Then on the deck they erected a huge deck-house, with sloping sides pierced with port-holes for ten heavy smooth-bore guns. The funnel pa.s.sed up through the roof of the deck-house. There were no masts, only a flagstaff. The flat deck s.p.a.ce, fore and aft, and the sloping sides of the deck-house were to be armoured with four inches of iron, but there were no armour plates available. Railway iron was collected and rolled into long narrow strips, and these were bolted on the structure in two layers, laid crosswise in different directions. An armoured conning-tower, low and three-sided, was built on the front of the deck-house roof. The bow was armed with a ma.s.s of iron, in order to revive the ancient method of attack by ramming. Thus equipped the ”Merrimac” was commissioned, under the command of Commodore Buchanan, and renamed the ”Confederate States' ironclad steam-ram 'Virginia,'” but the s.h.i.+p was always generally known by her former name.
At noon on Sat.u.r.day, 8 March, 1862, the ”Merrimac” started on her voyage down the Elizabeth River. It was to be at once her trial trip and her first fighting expedition. She was to attack and destroy the Federal blockading fleet in Hampton Roads. Up to the last moment the s.h.i.+p was crowded with working men. They were cleared out of her as she cast off from the quay. As the ”Merrimac” went down the river the officers were telling off the men to their stations. Not one of her guns had ever been fired. There had been a few hurried drills. Everything was improvised.
The first disappointment was to find that with the engines doing their best she could only make five knots. She steered badly, answering her helm slowly and turning on a wide circle. As one of her officers put it, ”she was as unmanageable as a water-logged vessel.” She drew 22 feet of water, so that she had to keep to the narrow channel in the middle of the river, and the risk of getting hopelessly aground was serious.
The Confederate troops crowded the batteries on either bank, and cheered the ”Merrimac” as she went slowly down. It was a fine day, with bright suns.h.i.+ne and absolutely no wind, and the broad stretch of water in Hampton Roads was like a pond. At the same time a small squadron of Confederate gunboats came down the James River to co-operate in the attack. These s.h.i.+ps were the ”Yorktown” (12 guns), the ”Jamestown” (2 guns), and the ”Teaser”
(1 gun). Two other gunboats, the ”Beaufort” and the ”Raleigh,” followed the ”Merrimac.” But the chief hope of the attack was placed upon the ironclad.
The nine vessels of the blockading fleet lay along the north side of Hampton Roads, from the point at Newport News to Old Point Comfort, where the Roads open on Chesapeake Bay. They were strung out over a distance of about eight miles. The sh.o.r.e on that side was held by the Federals, and the point at Newport News bristled with batteries. Near the point were anch.o.r.ed the sailing frigate ”Congress,” of 50 guns, and the sloop ”c.u.mberland,” a full-rigged three-master, armed with 30 guns. On board the Federal s.h.i.+ps there was not the remotest expectation of attack. Clothes were drying in the rigging. A crowd of boats lay alongside. It was known that the Confederates had been busy converting the old ”Merrimac” into an armoured ram at Norfolk Navy Yard, but it was not believed that she was yet ready for action. The men had just eaten their dinners, and were having a pipe, when the first alarm was raised. By the wharf at Newport News lay a tug-boat, the ”Zouave,” which had been armed with a 30-pounder gun, and was rated as a gunboat and tender to the fleet. Her captain noticed the smoke of steamers coming down the Elizabeth River, and cast off from the wharf and went alongside the ”c.u.mberland.” The officer of the watch told him to run across to the river mouth and find out what was coming down from Norfolk.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HAMPTON ROADS (1ST. DAY) ”MERRIMAC” COMES OUT.
SINKS ”c.u.mBERLAND” & BURNS ”CONGRESS”]
[Ill.u.s.tration: HAMPTON ROADS (2ND. DAY) DUEL BETWEEN ”MONITOR” & ”MERRIMAC”]
”It did not take us long to find out,” he says, ”for we had not gone over two miles when we saw what to all appearances looked like the roof of a very big barn belching forth smoke as from a chimney. We were all divided in opinion as to what was coming. The boatswain's mate was the first to make out the Confederate flag, and then we all guessed it was the 'Merrimac' come at last.”
The little ”Zouave” fired half a dozen shots, which fell short. The ”Merrimac” took no notice of this demonstration, but steadily held her way.
Then the ”c.u.mberland” signalled to the ”Zouave” to come back, and she ran past the anch.o.r.ed wars.h.i.+ps and under shelter of the batteries. These were now opening fire on the Confederate gunboats issuing from the James River.
The ”Congress” and ”c.u.mberland” had cleared for action and weighed anchor.
Other s.h.i.+ps of the fleet had taken the alarm, and were coming up into the Roads to help their consorts. The Confederate batteries at Sewell's Point opened fire at long range against these s.h.i.+ps as they stood into the Roads.
The ”Merrimac” was steering straight for the ”c.u.mberland,” in grim silence, her unarmoured consorts keeping well astern. When the range was about three-quarters of a mile the two Federal s.h.i.+ps opened fire with the heavy guns mounted on pivots on their upper decks, and the sh.o.r.e batteries also brought some guns to bear. A heavy cannonade from sea and sh.o.r.e was now echoing over the landlocked waters, but the ”Merrimac” fired not a gun in reply. A few cannon-shot struck her sloping armoured sides, and rebounded with a ringing clang. The rest ricochetted harmlessly over the water, throwing up sparkling geysers of foam in the bright sunlight.
At last, when the range was only some 500 yards, the bow-gun of the ”Merrimac” was fired at the ”c.u.mberland,” with an aim so true that it killed or wounded most of the men at one of her big pivot-guns. A moment after the ram was abeam of the ”Congress,” and fired her starboard battery of four guns into her at deadly close range. With the projectiles from 25 guns of the ”Congress” and 15 of the ”c.u.mberland” rattling on her armour, riddling her funnel, and destroying davits, rails, and deck-fittings, the ”Merrimac” steamed straight for the ”c.u.mberland,” which made an ineffectual attempt to avoid the coming collision. At the last moment some men were killed and wounded in the gun-deck of the ram by shots entering a port-hole. Then came a grinding crash as the iron ram of the ”Merrimac”
struck the ”c.u.mberland” almost at right angles on the starboard side under her fore-rigging. On board the Confederate s.h.i.+p the shock was hardly felt.
But the ”c.u.mberland” heeled over with the blow, and righted herself again as the ”Merrimac” reversed her engines and cleared her, leaving a huge breach in the side of her enemy. The ram had crushed in several of her frames and made a hole in her side ”big enough to drive a coach and horses through.” The water was pouring into her like a mill-race.
From the ”Merrimac,” lying close alongside with silent guns, came a hail and a summons to surrender. From the deck of the ”c.u.mberland” her commander, Morris, replied with a curt refusal. The firing began again; the ”c.u.mberland's” men, driven from the gun-deck by the inrush of rising water, took refuge on the upper deck. Some jumped overboard and began swimming ash.o.r.e. Others kept her two pivot-guns in action for a few minutes. Then with a lurch she went down. Boats from the sh.o.r.e saved a few of her people.
Those who watched from the batteries could hardly believe their eyes as they saw the masts of the wars.h.i.+p sticking out of the water where a few minutes ago the ”c.u.mberland” had waited in confidence for the attack of the improvised ”rebel” ironclad.
As her adversary went down, the ”Merrimac” turned slowly to menace the ”Congress” with the same swift destruction. She took no notice of the harmless cannonade from the sh.o.r.e. Lieutenant Smith, who commanded the ”Congress,” had realized that collision with the enemy meant destruction, rapid and inevitable, and decided that his best chance was to get into shoal water under the batteries. He had slipped his cable, shaken out some of his sails, and signalled to the tug-boat ”Zouave” to come to his help.
The ”Zouave” made fast to the ”Congress” on the land side, but she had not moved far when the s.h.i.+p grounded within easy range of the ”Merrimac's”
guns. These were already in action against her.
The leading s.h.i.+p of the seaward Federal squadron, the frigate ”Minnesota,”
had come in within long range, and opened on the ”Merrimac” and the gunboats. But she had only fired a few shots when she also ran aground on the edge of the main channel, but in such a position that some of her guns could still be brought to bear. Taking no notice of this more distant foe, the ”Merrimac” devoted all her attention to the ”Congress.” She sent a broadside into the stranded frigate, and then pa.s.sing under her stern, raked her fore and aft and set her on fire. Lieutenant Smith, of the ”Congress,” was badly wounded. Lieutenant Prendergast, who succeeded to the command, decided that with his s.h.i.+p aground and the enemy able quietly to cannonade her without coming under fire of most of her guns, to prolong the fight would be to waste life uselessly. After consulting his wounded chief he dipped his colours and displayed a white flag. The little ”Zouave” cast off from the frigate, and as she cleared her, fired a single shot from her one gun at the ”Merrimac,” and then ran down to the ”Minnesota.” This shot led afterwards to a false report that the ”Congress” had reopened fire treacherously after surrendering.
Civil war has often been described as fratricidal. In this action between the ”Congress” and the ”Merrimac” two brothers were opposed to each other.
Commodore Buchanan, who commanded the ”Merrimac,” knew, when he attacked the ”Congress,” that a younger brother of his was a junior officer of the frigate. The younger man escaped unscathed, but the commodore was slightly wounded during the fight. When the ”Congress” struck her colours, Buchanan ordered two of the gunboats to take off her crew. Her flag was secured to be sent to Richmond as a trophy. While the gunboats ”Raleigh” and ”Beaufort” were taking off the Federal wounded, there came from the batteries on sh.o.r.e a heavy fire of guns and rifles. Several of the wounded and two officers of the ”Raleigh” were killed, and the gunboats drew off, leaving most of the crew of the ”Congress” still on board. They escaped to the sh.o.r.e in boats and by swimming. Meanwhile the ”Merrimac” fired a number of red-hot shot into her, and she was soon ablaze fore and aft. Then the ironclad turned and fired at the ”Minnesota.”
The sun was going down and the tide was running out rapidly. The deep draught of the ”Merrimac” made the risk of grounding, if she closely engaged the ”Minnesota,” a serious matter. So Buchanan signalled to the gunboats to cease fire, and, accompanied by them, steamed over to the south side of the Roads, where he anch.o.r.ed for the night under the Confederate batteries, intending to complete the destruction of the Federal fleet next morning.
The first day's fight was over. It had been a battle between the old and the new--between a steam-propelled armoured ram and wooden sailing-s.h.i.+ps.
The ”c.u.mberland” had been sunk, the ”Congress” forced to surrender and set on fire, and the ”Minnesota” was hopelessly aground and marked down as the first victim for next day. The Federals had lost some two hundred men. The Confederates only twenty-one. Buchanan was wounded, not severely, but seriously enough for the command of the ”Merrimac” to be transferred to Lieutenant Jones. As night came on the moon rose, but the wide expanse of water was lighted up, not by her beams only, but also by the red glare from the burning ”Congress.” The flames ran up her tarred rigging like rocket trails, masts and spars were defined in flickers of flame. At last, with a deafening roar that was heard for many a mile, she blew up, strewing the Roads with scattered wreckage.
At ten o'clock that evening, while the ”Congress” was still burning, a strange craft had steamed into the Roads from the sea, all unnoticed by the Confederates. She anch.o.r.ed in the shallow water between the ”Minnesota” and the sh.o.r.e. Her light draught enabled her to go into waters where less powerful fighting-s.h.i.+ps would have grounded. To use the words of one who first saw her as the sun rose next day, she looked like a plank afloat with a can on top of it. She was Ericsson's ironclad turret-s.h.i.+p, the ”Monitor.”
In the first weeks of the war inventors had besieged the United States Navy Department with proposals for the construction of ironclad wars.h.i.+ps. The Department was still leisurely debating as to what policy should be adopted, when news came that the ”Merrimac,” half-burnt at Norfolk Yard, was being reconstructed as an armoured ram, and it became urgent to provide an adversary to meet her on something like equal terms. It was at this moment that John Ericsson came forward with his offer to construct an armoured light-draught turret-s.h.i.+p, which could be very rapidly built and put in commission. This last point was of cardinal importance, for report said that work on the ”Merrimac” was far advanced, and no s.h.i.+p could be built on ordinary lines, of sufficient power to meet her, in the time now available. The vessel must be of light draught to work in the shallow coast waters, creeks, and river mouths of the Southern States. She might have to fight in narrow channels, where there would not be room for manoeuvring to bring broadside guns to bear. Ericsson, therefore, proposed that her armament should be a pair of heavy guns mounted in a turret, which could be revolved so as to point them in any direction, independently of the position of the s.h.i.+p herself.