LOSS OF THE CONGRESS. bear upon the enemy, and the ship being on fire in several places, upon consultation with Commander William Smith, we deemed it proper to haul down our colors without any further loss of life on our part. We were soon boarded by an officer of the Merrimac, who said he would take charge of the ship. He left shortly afterwards, and a small tug came alongside, whose captain demanded that we should surrender and get out of the ship, as he intended to burn her immediately. A sharp fire with muskets and artillery was maintained from our troops ashore upon the tug, having the effect of driving her off. The Merrimac again opened upon us, although we had a peak to show that we were out of action. After having fired several shells into us she left us and engaged the Minnesota and the shore batteries, after which, Lieutenant Pendergrast states, the wounded were taken ashore in small boats, the ship having been on fire from the beginning of the action from hot shot fired by the Merrimac." He reports the death of the following officers: Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, Acting Master Thomas Moore, and Pilot William Rhodes. 301 tration of the divided allegiance of the same families in the war. Mr. McKean Buchanan, a brother of the rebel commander, was paymaster on board the Congress, and it was said that the vessel was in a measure spared in consideration of that circumstance. However that may be, we know not. Such conflicts are governed by other laws than those of domestic kindness, fratricide being not specially forbidden in the articles of war. But this remains on record, that while one brother was leading forth a desperate, premeditated, and in a great measure, wanton assault upon the flag of his country, and its noble-minded supporters, the other was engaged beyond the duties of his office in the national defence. Readily offering his services, Mr. McKean Buchanan was placed in charge of the berth-deck during the terrible encounter. "I promptly obeyed,' he wrote afterward to the Secretary of War, "and thank God I did some service to my country." During this engagement, shots were also fired from the Merrimac and the Yorktown and the Jamestown on the camp at Newport News, which it was The total number of officers and men on apparently a leading object of the eneboard the Congress at the time of this fatal my's expedition to destroy, with the encounter was four hundred and thirty- view of gaining possession of the imfour; of these two hundred and ninety-portant situation. Many shells were eight were accounted for, leaving one thrown, but without effect. They passed hundred and thirty-six killed, wounded, over the tents or alighted where they and missing. Twenty-six of the wound- did no damage. One of them exploded ed were taken on shore, of whom ten in the artillery stables, but the horses died. The fire on board the Congress and occupants were away. General continued to burn, brilliantly lighting up Wool, aware of the danger to the camp, the harbor, till the explosion of the mag- early forwarded reinforcements by land azine, after midnight, scattered the rem- from Fortress Monroe. The artillerists nants of the conflagration. and riflemen at Newport News, as we have seen in the rescue of the officers and men of the Congress from imprisonment, were effectively engaged during the contest. The Merrimac first attacked the Cumberland probably on account of her more formidable armament. Another reason, however, was suggested in the reports of the day, worth alluding to as an illus * Lieutenant Austin Pendergrast's official report of casualties to Hon. Gideon Welles. Philadelphia, March 19, 1862. We now turn to the fortunes of the other vessels which were hastening from Fortress Monroe to the scene of action. The steam frigate Minnesota, by far the into three fathoms and a half water and grounded on the stern. She was then towed round by one of the tugs and got afloat again, when the tugs were sent to the aid of the Minnesota. The Roanoke warned of her danger, made no further attempt to get forward, and when night came on was towed back to Fortress Monroe. In passing and repassing the batteries at Sewall's Point, shots were exchanged, the fire of the enemy going beyond the vessel, that of the latter falling short. most powerful vessel on the station, a in consequence of her bad steerage, got propeller of the first class, heavily armed, was calculated, from her weight of metal and superiority in sailing, to prove a formidable antagonist, at close quarters, even for the iron-plated Merrimac. Eager for the conflict, she passed rapidly along the channel within range of the batteries of Sewall's Point, where she encountered the fire from the fortifications, which was returned, while she received a shot going through and crippling her mainmast. She then ran along to within about a mile and a half of Newport News, where she unhappily There is yet another disaster of the grounded. There, in that helpless con- same class to be recorded. The frigate dition, struggling to get off, her crew St. Lawrence, towed by the gunboat were compelled to witness, as idle spec- Cambridge, both vessels having just artators, the terrific destruction wrought rived from sea, passed the Sewall's Point upon the Cumberland and the Congress, battery, exchanging shots with trifling with the prospect of the same remorse- injury to herself, when, to complete the less energies being in no long time direct- chapter of accidents, she also grounded ed against themselves. The trial speed- near the Minnesota. She fired a few ily came. Turning from her easily-won harmless shots at the iron ram, but they triumphs, at four o'clock in the afternoon,. did no execution. In the words of her the Merrimac, accompanied by the James- commander, Captain Purviance, "The town and Patrick Henry, bore down armor of the Merrimac proved invulnerupon the Minnesota. "Very fortunately," able to her comparatively feeble projecsays Captain Van Brunt, in his report, tiles. Taking advantage of these porthe iron battery drew too much water tentous circumstances, the Merrimac dito come within a mile of us. She took rected her attention to firing several proa position on my starboard bow, but did jectiles of formidable dimensions, one of not fire with accuracy, and only one shot which, an 8-pound shell, penetrated the passed through the ship's bow. The starboard quarter about four inches above other two steamers took their position the water-line, passed through the pantry on my port bow and stern, and their fire of the ward-room, and into the statedid most damage in killing and wound- room of the assistant surgeon on the port ing men, inasmuch as they fired with side, completely demolishing the bulkrifled guns; but with the heavy gun that head, and then struck against a strong I could bring to bear upon them I drove iron bar which secured the bull's eye of them off, one of them apparently in a the port. It returned into the wardcrippled state. I fired upon the Merri-room expended. It fortunately did not mac with my 10-inch pivot gun without any apparent effect, and at seven P. M. she too hauled off, and all three vessels steamed towards Norfolk." 66 To complete the inventory of disasters of this unhappy day, the flag-ship Roanoke towed along, her engine, as we have stated, disabled, making progress slowly explode and no one was injured. The damage done by this shot proved the powers of the projectiles which they employed, and readily explained the quick destruction of our wooden antiquated frigates. Our position at this time was one of some anxiety. Being aground, the tug Young America came alongside APPEARANCE OF THE MONITOR. and got us off; after which a powerful broadside from the spar and gun decks of the St. Lawrence, then distant about half a mile, thrown into the Merrimac, induced her to withdraw, whether from necessity of discretion is not known." The Merrimac, notwithstanding the security of her iron armor, had to report some losses. Two were killed. Captain Buchanan and Lieutenant Minor and six others were wounded. Two of the guns, says Captain Catesby Ap R. Jones, the successor to the command after the fall of Captain Buchanan, "had the muzzles shot off; the prow was twisted, and armor somewhat damaged; the anchor and all flagstaffs shot away, and smoke-stack and steam-pipe were riddled." Captain Buchanan, it was said, was wounded by a rifle shot from the Cumberland, the ball going through his thigh. The Patrick Henry, was disabled by a shot passing through one of her boilers. There were a number killed and wounded on board. 30? was even taken of removing a large sum of money on board to the fort. Het surviving comrades, unable to render further assistance, had retired sorrowfully in the distance. Nothing seemed secure in the presence of this fell devouring monster, whose ill-shapen form defied the consummate structures of naval strength and beauty. It was an inglorious fate for the gallant American Navy, thus to be overcome without valor in the waters of Hampton Roads, within sight of Fortress Monroe, whence so often the old Commodores had sailed and carried the old flag forth to victory. In the midst of these depressing accidents, whilst men "bitterly thought of the morrow," there suddenly appears a new-comer on the scene in the iron-plated gunboat Monitor, which came in from the sea in the evening, and anchored at ten o'clock off the fort. Her arrival was not altogether unexpected. She was known to be on her way from New York, and her presence during the scenes of the afternoon had been most eagerly longed for. This vessel was in every way a novelty. Her general appearance was not inaptly described by the Norfolk rebels, when they became acquainted with her the next day, as "a Yankee cheese-box set on a raft," there being in fact little visible of her but a flat iron deck on the surface of the water, sur Thus the night closed on this eventful Saturday. Of the proud ships which had lifted their spars to heaven in the morning, the glory and defence of the nation, confident in their mighty armament and the valiant bands eager to wield their strength, what was now the condition? The Cumberland was sunk in the waters with naught but the extremity of her top-mast visible, the pen-mounted by a low, round tower, pilotnant yet flying, keeping honorable though melancholy guard over her hundred fallen heroes. Near at hand, on the shore, her gallant defenders slaughtered, her decks spoiled, her men carried away captives, the Congress was wrapped in flames, her blazing spars a welcome spectacle to friend and foe; the one consoled that she could suffer no further dishonor, the other barbarously rejoicing in this cruel blow inflicted upon their country. The Minnesota, helplessly imbedded in the sand, waited the morrow's further work of destruction. No little anxiety was felt as to her fate. The precaution box, and smoke-pipe. But her scientific peculiarities are worthy of a more particular statement. "Externally," says one of the descriptions printed in a newspaper of the day, "she presents to the fire of the enemy's guns a hull rising but about eighteen inches above the water, and a sort of Martello tower, twenty feet in diameter and ten feet high. The smoke-stack during action is lowered into the hold, it being made with telescopic slides. The hull is sharp at both ends, the bow projecting and coming to a point at an angle of eighty degrees to the vertical line. It is flat-bottomed, gunner to control the aim. The guns move in forged-iron slides across the turret, the carriages being made to fit them accurately." six and a half feet in depth, one hundred half inches in diameter, moved by a and twenty-four feet long, thirty-four double-cylinder engine, turns the turret, feet wide at the top, and is built of light guns and all, a rod connected with the three-eighth-inch iron. Another or up-running-gear of the engine enabling the per hull rests on this, with perpendicular sides and sharp ends, five feet high, forty feet four inches wide, one hundred and seventy-four feet long, extending over the sides of the lower hull three feet seven inches, and over each end twenty-five feet, thus serving as a protection to the propeller, rudder, and anchor. The sides of the upper hull are composed of an inner guard of iron, a wall of white oak thirty inches thick, covered with iron armor six inches thick. When in readiness for action, the lower hull is totally immersed, and the upper one is sunk three feet six inches, leaving only eighteen inches above water. The interior is open to the bottom, like a sloop; the deck, which is bomb-proof, coming flush with the top of the upper hull. No railing or bulwark of any kind appears above the deck, and the only things exposed are the turret or citadel, the wheelhouse, and the box crowning the smokestack. The inclination of the lower hull is such that a ball to strike it in any part must pass through at least twenty-five feet of water, and then strike an inclined iron surface at an angle of about ten degrees. In the event of the enemy boarding the battery they can do no harm, as the only entrance is at the top of the turret or citadel, which can not easily be scaled, and even then only one man at a time can descend into the hull. This turret is a revolving, bomb-proof fort, and mounts two 11-inch guns. It is protected by eight thicknesses of inch iron, overlapping so that at no one spot is there more than one inch thickness of joint. A shell-proof flat roof, of perforated plate iron, placed on forged beams, inserted six inches down the cylinder, covers the top. The sliding-hatch in this cover is perforated, to give light, and for musketry-fire in case the battery is boarded. A spur-wheel, six and one The time had now come when these various ingenious contrivances were to be put to the test. It was emphatically the trial-trip of the Monitor-first, on the ocean, where the excellence of her engines and her good sailing qualities were successfully demonstrated, and, now, in action, where they remained to be proved. It was one of the stipulations. of the contract with the Government, that she was not to be accepted till after successful trial of her powers before the heaviest guns of the enemy, and at the shortest range. The enterprising citizens who furnished the capital for her construction and the eminent engineer who planned the work were not to wait long for the expected opportunity. As the vessel approached Hampton Roads in the afternoon, heavy firing was heard by her officers in the distance, then the flash of bursting shell became visible, and as night drew on the illumination of the burning frigate lit up her pathway. It was evident that the Merrimac had been busy in her work of destruction. Soon as the Monitor reached the station she was met with intelligence of the day's events, and her commander, Captain Worden, reported to the flag-ship for orders. He was directed by Captain Marston to lay alongside the Minnesota, for her protection, and thither accordingly the Monitor proceeded, reaching her position at two o'clock in the morning, when, in the expressive language of Captain Van Brunt, "all on board felt that we had a friend that would stand by us in our hour of trial." The ensuing incidents of that memorable Sunday forenoon-another fair day greeting the pitiless work—can not be |