Part 65 (2/2)

The hard common sense of Abraham Lincoln rescued the National Government from a delicate and dangerous situation. Lincoln apologized to Great Britain, restored the Confederate Commissioners and returned with redoubled energy to the prosecution of the war. In answer to the shouts of demagogues and the reproaches of both friend and foe, the homely rail-splitter from the West had a simple answer.

”One war at a time.”

Jefferson Davis watched this threat of British invasion with breathless intensity. He saw the hope of thus breaking the power of the navy fade with sickening disappointment.

There was one more hope. The hull of the _Merrimac_ had been raised from the bottom of the harbor of Norfolk and the work of transforming her into a giant iron-clad s.h.i.+p capable of carrying a fighting crew of three hundred men had been completed, though her engines were slow.

But the enthusiastic men set to this task by Davis had accomplished wonders. Their reports to him had raised high hopes of a sensation. If this new monster of the sea should succeed single handed in destroying the fleet of six vessels lying in Hampton Roads, the naval warfare of the world would be revolutionized in a day and overtures for peace might be within sight.

The Norfolk newspapers, under instructions from the Confederate Commandant, p.r.o.nounced the experiment of the _Merrimac_ a stupid and fearful failure. Her engines were useless. Her steering gear wouldn't work. Her armament was so heavy she couldn't be handled. These papers were easily circulated at Newport News and Old Point Comfort among the officers and men of the Federal fleet.

The men who had built the strange craft knew she was anything but a failure. With eager, excited hands her crew finished the last touch of her preparations and with her guns shotted she slowly steamed out of the harbor of Norfolk accompanied by two saucy little improvised gunboats, the _Beaufort_ and the _Raleigh_.

Her speed was not more than five knots an hour and she steered so badly the _Beaufort_ was compelled to pull her into the main current of the channel more than once.

The Federal squadron lay off Newport News, the _Congress_ and the _c.u.mberland_ well out in the stream, the _Minnesota_, _Roanoke_ and _St.

Lawrence_ further down toward Fortress Monroe. The _Congress_, _c.u.mberland_ and _St. Lawrence_ mounted one hundred and twenty-four guns, twenty-two of them of nine-inch caliber. Their crews aggregated more than a thousand men.

The new crack steam frigates _Minnesota_ and _Roanoke_ had crews of six hundred men each and carried more than eighty guns of nine and eleven-inch caliber. That any single craft afloat would dare attack such a squadron was preposterous.

It was one o'clock before the strange black looking object swung into the channel and turned her nose up stream toward Newport News.

The crews of the _Congress_ and the _c.u.mberland_ were lounging on deck enjoying the balmy spring air. It was wash day and the clothes were fluttering in the breeze.

They couldn't make out the foolish-looking thing at first. It looked like the top of a long-hipped roof house that had been sawed off at the eaves and pushed into the water. The two little river steamers that accompanied the raft seemed to be towing it.

”What 'ell, Bill, is that thing?” a sailor asked his mate on the _Congress_.

Bill scanned the horizon.

”I give it up, sir,” he admitted. ”I been a sailin' the seas for forty years--but that's one on me!”

A battle signal suddenly flashed from the _c.u.mberland_ and down came the wash lines.

The _Beaufort_ with a single thirty-two-pounder rifle mounted in her bow was steaming alongside the port of the strange craft. A puff of white smoke flared from her single gun and its dull roar waked the still beautiful waters of the Virginia harbor.

The _Merrimac_ flung her big battle flag into the sky and her tiny escorts dropped down stream to give her free play. The _Congress_ and the _c.u.mberland_ were surprised, but they slipped their anchors in a jiffy, swung their guns in haste and began pouring a storm of shot on the iron sides of the coming foe.

The _Merrimac_ moved forward with slow, steady throb as though the shot that rained on her slanting sides were so many pebbles thrown by school boys. She pa.s.sed the _Congress_ and pointed her ugly prow for the _c.u.mberland_. The s.h.i.+p poured her broadside squarely into the face of the Merrimac without damage and the bow gun roared an answer that pierced her bulwarks.

Through the thick cloud of heavy smoke that hung low on the water the throbbing monster bore straight down on the _c.u.mberland_, struck her amids.h.i.+p and sent her to the bottom.

As the gallant s.h.i.+p sank in sickening lurches her brave crew cheered her to her grave and continued firing her useless guns until the waves engulfed the decks. When her keel touched the bottom her flag was still flying from her masthead. She rolled over on her beam's end and carried the flag beneath the waves.

The Confederate mosquito fleet, consisting of the little gunboats _Patrick Henry_, _Teaser_ and _Jamestown_, swung down from the river now, ran boldly past the flaming sh.o.r.e batteries and joined in the attack on the Federal squadron.

The _Congress_ had set one of her sails and with the aid of a tug was desperately working to reach shoal water before she could be sunk. Her captain succeeded in beaching her directly under the guns of the sh.o.r.e batteries. At four o'clock she gave up the b.l.o.o.d.y unequal contest and hauled down her colors.

<script>