FIRST BATTLE BETWEEN IRONCLADS
A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE _MONITOR_ AND THE _MERRIMAC_ BY THE ENGLISH
STANDARD OF 1812--IT ASTONISHED THE SPECTATORS TO SEE THE TINY
_MONITOR’S_ TEMERITY--AFTER HALF A DAY’S FIRING IT WAS PLAIN THAT
THE GUNS COULD NOT PENETRATE THE ARMOR--ATTEMPTS TO RAM THAT
FAILED--THE _MERRIMAC_ A-LEAK--CAPTAIN WORDEN OF THE _MONITOR_
DISABLED WHEN THE _MERRIMAC’S_ FIRE WAS CONCENTRATED ON THE
PILOT-HOUSE--WHERE THE _MONITOR’S_ GUNNERS FAILED--FAIR STATEMENT
OF THE RESULT OF THE BATTLE--WORDEN’S FAITHFUL CREW--THE _MERRIMAC_
DEFIED THE _MONITOR_ IN MAY, BUT WHEN NORFOLK WAS EVACUATED SHE
HAD TO BE ABANDONED AND WAS BURNED AT CRANEY ISLAND--LOSS OF THE
_MONITOR_.
As it happened, the gunners on the _Merrimac_, when firing red-hot
shot at the _Congress_, aimed high, and the shot were lodged in the
upper part of the hull. The flames quickly spread over the bulwarks
and up the rigging, but were slow in eating down toward the magazine.
For hours the flames illuminated the whole region, while now and
again a gun that had been left loaded was fired by the growing heat.
It was a scene that attracted thousands of eyes ashore and afloat
until, soon after midnight, the fire arrived at the magazine, and
the exploding powder hurled the huge mass of blazing timbers high in
air. A thunderous roar shook all the region round about, and then “the
stillness of death” followed.
But while the men on the _Merrimac_ watched the fruition of their day’s
work, one of them, a pilot, saw “a strange-looking craft brought out
in bold relief by the brilliant light of the burning ship, which he
at once proclaimed to be the _Ericsson_.” The pilot was right. The
_Monitor_ had arrived after a fearsome passage, during which the water
had poured in through the hawse-pipe where the anchor chain led, and
even down the smoke-stack, until the fires were all but extinguished.
The belts on the fans got wet, so that it was not possible to keep up
the draft, and the engineers and firemen were all but suffocated. The
water dashed through the lookout slats of the pilot-house with such
force as to knock the pilot over the wheel. The water gained in the
hold until there was imminent danger of sinking. Nevertheless, it was
an offshore wind, and the tug that went with her got her inshore, where
the water was quiet, and at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday,
March 8th, she passed in at Cape Henry and headed north for Hampton
Roads. She was commanded by Capt. J. L. Worden, with Lieut. S. D.
Greene as executive officer, and A. C. Stivers and Isaac Newton as
chief and first assistant engineers. The roar of the guns of the
_Merrimac_ as she fired hot shot into the _Congress_ twenty miles
away, fell upon the ears of the _Monitor’s_ crew, and the ship was at
once cleared for action. After a little they “could see the fine old
_Congress_ burning brightly, and soon a pilot came on board to tell
the direful news.” The _Monitor_ was then driven at full speed to
the _Roanoke_, where Flag Officer Marston directed her to go to the
assistance of the _Minnesota_, then aground not far from the scene
of the day’s conflict. In doing this Marston disobeyed orders he had
received from Washington to the effect that the _Monitor_ was to be
sent there, presumably to protect the capital; and this is to be
remembered because it shows that the authorities at Washington were as
loath to trust in aggressive warfare in 1862 as they were in 1812 when
they ordered Hull to keep the _Constitution_ in Boston harbor.
[Illustration: J. L. Worden.
_From a photograph._]
Steaming over to where the _Minnesota_ lay, the _Monitor_ came to
anchor, an officer reported on board the big frigate, “and then all on
board [the _Minnesota_] felt that we had a friend that would stand by
us in our hour of trial.” So wrote Captain Van Brunt of the _Minnesota_.
How far this confidence was justified was proved by the event of the
next day; but when one contrasts the apparent power of the two ships
as they lay that night, the one at Sewell’s Point and the other at
Newport News, the chance of the _Monitor’s_ accomplishing anything
seems very remote. Consider her guns. They were eleven inches in bore,
but ten-inch shot had been fired at the _Merrimac_ for hours that day
without effect. The _Minnesota_ fired seventy-eight solid ten-inch shot
and 169 solid nine-inch shot, with full service charges of powder, at
the _Merrimac_ during the two days’ fighting. Only a few of these were
fired on Saturday, but the _Congress_ and the _Cumberland_ had fired
shot a-plenty of that size at her, and none had hurt her massive walls.
The eleven-inch shot of the _Monitor_ was not so much heavier that
her crew could be confident of piercing the armor where the ten-inch
had failed utterly. The eleven-inch solid shot used weighed from 170
to 180 pounds, the ten-inch about forty pounds less. Moreover, the
_Monitor_ had but two guns to the ten of the _Merrimac_. The weight
of the _Merrimac’s_ broadside of five guns is not given in any of the
authorities known to the writer, but her three Dahlgrens fired 270
pounds, her small rifle at least forty-five more, and, with one pivot
counted in, the whole discharge was 465 pounds, or more than double
that of the _Monitor_. The _Monitor’s_ crew numbered fifty-eight, all
told, while the _Merrimac_ carried 320. Certainly if one may judge by
the standards set up in English literature on the War of 1812, these
differences in numbers of crews and weights of broadsides would make
the result a foregone conclusion. Nor is that all to be said about
the crews, for the men on the _Merrimac_ had had their usual rest and
food, while the crew of the _Monitor_ had had scarcely a wink of sleep
since leaving New York, and it had been impossible to make a fire in
the galley and cook their food. They were served with food that night,
but no one slept. “The dreary night dragged slowly on; the officers and
crew were up and alert, to be ready for any emergency.” At daylight the
Confederate ships were seen at anchor off Sewell’s Point, and at 7.30
o’clock they left their anchorage and headed across toward Newport News
to begin anew their destruction of the Government ships.
[Illustration: Deck View of the _Monitor_ and her Crew.
_From a photograph._]
“At the same time the _Monitor_ got under way, and her officers and
crew took their stations for battle,” Captain Worden going into the
pilot-house with Quartermaster Peter Williams, who was to handle the
wheel, and Pilot Howard to tell the route. These three filled the
little coop, that rose just four feet above the deck. Lieutenant
Greene went to the turret with “sixteen brawny men, eight to each
gun.” Engineer Stivers also entered the turret to assist in handling
the machinery turning it, and Acting Master L. N. Stodder was there
as second in command. Newton had charge of the engines. The most
important man in the ship that day was Greene, for it was his duty to
aim and fire the guns.
Something like an hour passed, after the _Merrimac_ left her anchorage,
before she arrived in range of the government ships, but when yet a
mile away she opened with her big bow rifle on the _Minnesota_. The
_Monitor_ had waited for her, and now, as the first shot was fired,
headed straight at her. It astonished the hosts of spectators to see
the tiny steamer taken directly alongside her huge antagonist. As she
ranged up in place, her engine was stopped, and Worden, stooping over a
speaking-tube that led to the turret, shouted the order:
“Commence firing!”
The crew in the turret triced up the shutter that covered the port, ran
the gun out as far as it would go, and then Lieutenant Greene, taking
deliberate aim at the broad but sloping wall, pulled the lock-string.
The shot struck its target with a resounding crash, split and broke
the iron plates in its path and bounded clear. The _Merrimac_ replied
with a broadside, and every shot struck the revolving turret, but all
without exception bounded away harmless. “A look of confidence passed
over the men’s faces in the turret,” and with good will they fell to
the work of reloading the gun, while Greene ran out the other one and
fired as before.
The most important naval battle in the history of the world was fairly
on. “Never before was anything like it dreamed of by the greatest
enthusiast in maritime war.”
[Illustration: The Fight between the _Merrimac_ and the _Monitor_.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
With deliberation the crews on both sides worked their guns. The
_Monitor_ fired a gun in seven or eight minutes, and the _Merrimac_ for
a time made an average of a gun once in less than three minutes. But
the _Monitor_, having a revolving turret, could easily direct her guns
at the _Merrimac_, while the latter, huge and unwieldy and with narrow
ports, had to trust to the fortunes of the battle for a chance to get
a good aim at her tiny opponent.
Standing in the little pilot-house, Captain Worden peered through
the chinks left for eye-holes between the iron logs of which it was
built. He saw that the shot first fired against the broad wall of the
_Merrimac_ bounded away without doing material harm, so he lessened the
range--laid the _Monitor_ so close beside her that an active man might
have leaped from ship to ship. Still the _Monitor’s_ shot failed to
penetrate, and he then went cruising to and fro, seeking a vulnerable
point, but finding none, although a single well-directed shot would
have sunk the _Merrimac_ out of sight. Failing in this, Worden made
a dash at the stern of the _Merrimac_, hoping to disable her rudder
or screw. He missed the mark, it is said, by the narrow margin of
two feet. Then the speaking-tube leading to the turret broke, and
the purser and the surgeon were stationed to pass the orders of the
captain. The interior of the turret became filled with smoke, and the
walls and deck were covered with the grime of battle. A painted mark
which had been laid to enable the turret’s crew to tell which side was
starboard and which port, was obliterated. The turret’s crew were shut
in and unable to learn, save with great difficulty, the bearing of the
enemy. The machinery that turned the turret was not quite equal to
the work; “it was hard to start and harder to stop when once agoing.”
Greene was obliged to fire from a moving turret, and the intervals
between shots were lengthened.
[Illustration: In the _Monitors_ Turret.]
But over on the _Merrimac_ matters were in quite as bad a condition.
The “ship was working worse and worse. The smoke-stack was carried
away, and the steam went down. Twice she grounded, while the _Monitor_,
having but a little more than half her draft, played around her.” And
even the shot from the big rifles made no impression on the turret of
the _Monitor_. Lieutenant Jones, on going to one part of the gun-deck,
found the men standing idle.
“‘Why are you not firing?’ he said to the lieutenant in charge.
“‘Why, our powder is very precious,’ replied the lieutenant, ‘and after
two hours I find that I can do her about as much damage by snapping
my thumb at her every two and a half minutes.’” So says Wood, already
quoted.
At this, Jones determined to ram the _Monitor_, and for an hour
manœuvred for a position before he was able to order, “Go ahead full
speed!” Even then he failed because the watchful Worden gave the handy
little _Monitor_ a turn, and the _Merrimac_ struck a glancing blow
that did not hurt the _Monitor_, but it opened up her own bow, making
an “alarming leak.” The leak was temporarily plugged, but it had its
effect on the fortunes of the day, later on.
As the _Merrimac_ sheered past the _Monitor_ when trying to ram her,
the _Monitor_ fired while the ships’ sides were touching. The shot
struck at right angles, and not only broke the armor-plates, but bulged
in the wood backing from two to three inches. The concussion made the
men in the immediate vicinity bleed at the nose and ears. It happened
on the _Monitor_ that a shot which struck the turret about that time
disabled Mr. Stodder, but he was thoughtlessly leaning against the
turret wall. These were the most effective shots fired on either side
during about six hours of steady fighting. The crew of the _Merrimac_
were ordered to board the _Monitor_ at this time, but the ships drifted
apart before it could be tried.
Meantime the _Merrimac_ had been making occasional efforts to get at
the vulnerable _Minnesota_. She had fired not a few shots at her from
the off-side battery. One shot exploded the boiler of the tug _Dragon_
alongside, and others made havoc on board the big ship. The _Minnesota_
replied as well as her situation permitted, but without effect.
And then the end came when the commander of the _Merrimac_ so far
appreciated the condition of affairs as to order his gunners to
concentrate their fire on the _Monitor’s_ pilot-house. The result was
paralyzing. A shell fired at a range of ten yards struck and burst
against a lookout slot through which Captain Worden was gazing. Flaming
grains of powder and shreds of iron were driven into his face and eyes.
It knocked him across the pilot-house, and blinded and wholly disabled
him.
The force of the explosion lifted a loose plate that lay on top of the
pilot-house, and let in a flood of light. This “caused Worden, blind
as he was, to believe that the pilot-house was seriously injured, if
not destroyed; he therefore gave orders to put the helm to starboard
and sheer off.” “The _Monitor_ retired temporarily from the action in
order to ascertain the extent of the injuries she had received.” Worden
was helped down from the pilot-house, and Greene was sent for. He found
Worden, “a ghastly sight, with his eyes closed and the blood apparently
pouring from every pore in the upper part of his face.” Greene helped
him to a sofa, where the doctor took charge of him. He believed himself
dangerously hurt, but did not lose his fortitude. Greene then went to
the pilot-house and took command.
[Illustration: The Action between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_.
_From an engraving of the picture by Chappel._]
During the time that was needed by this change of commanders the
_Monitor_ was heading toward Fortress Monroe. Captain Van Brunt
“thought it probable she had exhausted her supply of ammunition, or
sustained some injury.” Lieutenant Jones and his officers on the
_Merrimac_ very naturally supposed that the _Monitor_ had given up the
contest. Jones says:
“We for some time awaited the return of the _Monitor_ to the Roads.
After consultation it was decided that we should proceed to the
navy-yard in order that the vessel should be brought down in the water
and completed. The pilots said if we did not then leave that we could
not pass the bar until noon of the next day. We therefore at 12 M.
quit the Roads and stood for Norfolk. Had there been any sign of the
_Monitor’s_ willingness to renew the contest we would have remained to
fight her.”
Lieutenant Greene, of the _Monitor_, says of this matter:
“Exactly how much time elapsed from the moment that Worden was wounded
until I had reached the pilot-house and completed the examination of
the injury at that point, and determined what course to pursue in
the damaged condition of the vessel, it is impossible to state; but
it could hardly have exceeded twenty minutes at the utmost. During
this time the _Merrimac_, which was leaking badly, had started in
the direction of the Elizabeth River; and, on taking my station in
the pilot-house and turning the vessel’s head in the direction of
the _Merrimac_, I saw that she was already in retreat. A few shots
were fired at the retiring vessel, and she continued on to Norfolk.
I returned with the _Monitor_ to the side of the _Minnesota_, where
preparations were being made to abandon the ship, which was still
aground. Shortly afterward Worden was transferred to a tug, and that
night he was carried to Washington.”
Undoubtedly fair is the statement made by Lieut. John Taylor Wood:
“Although there is no doubt that the _Monitor_ first retired,--for
Captain Van Brunt, commanding the _Minnesota_, so states in his
official report,--_the battle was a drawn one_, so far as the two
vessels engaged were concerned. But _in its general results the
advantage was with the Monitor_.”
The italics are not in Lieutenant Wood’s statement, but are inserted
here to emphasize the effect of what he says. Greene adds:
“It has never been denied that the object of the _Merrimac_ on the
9th of March was to complete the destruction of the Union fleet in
Hampton Roads, and that in this she was completely foiled and driven
off by the _Monitor_; nor has it been denied that at the close of the
engagement the _Merrimac_ retreated to Norfolk, leaving the _Monitor_
in possession of the field.”
The reader is likely to think that “retreat” is a strong word to
use under the circumstances, especially as the ebb-tide and not the
_Monitor_ made the _Merrimac_ leave. Nevertheless, there was also
the leak in the _Merrimac’s_ bow to be considered. That leak was
“alarming,” according to Jones, and the _Merrimac_ got it in battle by
ramming the _Monitor_.
But while the controversy over the result of the battle is interesting,
it is in no sense practical. It is certain that neither crew was
whipped, whatever happened to the ships. The bravery on both sides must
excite the pride of every American. But the one point of the battle
that is of practical consideration is the gunnery.
Says Lieutenant Wood: “The _Monitor_ was well handled, and saved the
_Minnesota_ and the remainder of the fleet at Fortress Monroe. But her
gunnery was poor. Not a single shot struck us at the water-line, where
the ship was utterly unprotected, and where one would have been fatal.
Or had the fire been concentrated on any one spot, the shield would
have been pierced; or had larger charges been used, the result would
have been the same.” Here are statements of fact that ought never to be
forgotten. The haymakers of the lost _Wasp_ came back from the mists in
which they disappeared to mock at the gunnery displayed in the Civil
War, and especially in this battle, for they, in a battle at night,
laid their guns by the sissing line of foam cast off by the _Avon’s_
bow, and so struck the water-line and sank the ship in spite of the
utmost efforts of three crews to save her.
[Illustration: Group of Officers on Deck of the _Monitor_.
_From a photograph._]
In her battle with the _Monitor_ the _Merrimac_ was floating with
her unarmed bow, seventy feet long, more than a foot out of water,
instead of a-wash, as was originally intended. Had one shot from the
_Monitor_ struck the _Merrimac_ at the water-line’s junction with the
armor, she would have gone down. And yet Greene elevated instead of
depressing his guns. The gunnery of the _Merrimac_ was better than that
of the _Monitor_, for it was concentrated at the last on a vulnerable
point--the pilot-house--and so Worden was disabled (he was the only
one badly hurt in this fight), and the _Monitor_, for the time, was
driven away. The battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ did
not result in a glorious victory, but it was an unparalleled lesson in
naval warfare.
As a part of the history of the two famous ironclads, and as a
portrayal of the heart of the typical naval seaman of that day, the
following letter, written to Captain Worden while he was under the
surgeon’s care in Washington, must be given:
“TO CAPTAIN WORDEN.
“HAMPTON ROADS, _April_ 24th, 1862.
“U. S. _Monitor_.
“_To our Dear and Honored Captain._
“DEAR SIR: These few lines is from your own crew of the _Monitor_,
with their kindest Love to you their Honored Captain, hoping to
God that they will have the pleasure of welcoming you back to us
again soon, for we are all ready able and willing to meet Death or
anything else, only give us back our Captain again. Dear Captain
we have got your Pilot-house fixed and all ready for you when you
get well again; and we all sincerely hope that soon we will have
the pleasure of welcoming you back to it.... We are waiting very
patiently to engage our Antagonist if we could only get a chance
to do so. The last time she came out we all thought we would have
the Pleasure of sinking her. But we all got disappointed for we
did not fire one shot and the Norfolk papers says we are cowards
in the _Monitor_--and all we want is a chance to show them where
it lies with you for our Captain We can teach them who is cowards.
But there is a great deal that we would like to write to you but
we think you will soon be with us again yourself. But we all join
in with our kindest love to you, hoping that God will restore you
to us again and hoping that your sufferings is at an end now, and
we are all so glad to hear that your eyesight will be spaired to
you again. We would wish to write more to you if we have your kind
Permission to do so but at present we all conclude by tendering to
you our kindest Love and affection, to our Dear and Honored Captain.
“We remain untill Death your Affectionate Crew
“THE MONITOR BOYS.”
The stories of the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ may soon be completed.
The _Merrimac_ was overhauled at Norfolk. Commodore Josiah Tattnall
relieved Admiral Buchanan in command. On the 11th of April he took the
_Virginia_ (_Merrimac_) down to Hampton Roads, expecting to have a
desperate encounter with the _Monitor_. “Greatly to our surprise, the
_Monitor_ refused to fight us. She closely hugged the shore under the
guns of the fort, with her steam up. Hoping to provoke her to come
out, the _Jamestown_ was sent in, and captured several prizes, but the
_Monitor_ would not budge.” That is from a Confederate account, and it
is truthful. The _Monitor_ was under strict orders from Washington not
to engage the _Merrimac_ unless forced to do so. A great fleet, that
included a number of vessels which were supposed to be able to sink
the _Merrimac_ by ramming, had gathered at Hampton Roads. Commodore
Goldsborough was in command of the fleet. The prizes mentioned, two
brigs and a schooner, were taken from Newport News and in plain sight
of the fleet. Professor Soley’s history says very truly that this
incident was “humiliating.” For about a month after that nothing was
done, but “on the 8th of May a squadron, including the _Monitor_,
bombarded our batteries at Sewell’s Point. We immediately left the
yard for the Roads. As we drew near, the _Monitor_ and her consorts
ceased bombarding, and retreated under the guns of the forts, keeping
beyond the range of our guns. Men-of-war from below the forts, and
vessels expressly fitted for running us down, joined the other vessels
between the forts. It looked as if the fleet was about to make a fierce
onslaught upon us. But we were again to be disappointed. The _Monitor_
and the other vessels did not venture to meet us, although we advanced
until projectiles from the Rip Raps fell more than half a mile beyond
us. Our object, however, was accomplished; we had put an end to the
bombardment, and we returned to our buoy.”
As the reader observes, this is also a Confederate account. Commodore
Goldsborough’s report says, on the contrary, that “the _Merrimac_
was more cautious than ever”; and that the “_Monitor_ was kept well
in advance so that the _Merrimac_ could have engaged her without
difficulty had she been so disposed.” But the unprejudiced reader will
say that a Farragut was needed at the head of the Union force.
The _Merrimac_ remained unmolested until government operations ashore
compelled the Confederates to evacuate Norfolk and the battery at
Sewell’s Point. Tattnall wished to retreat with the _Merrimac_ up the
James River, but his pilots said it could not be done, and accordingly,
on the night of May 10, 1862, he ran her ashore “in the bight of Craney
Island,” not far from where he had, as a midshipman in his teens,
led the sortie from the little fort built there to keep the British
from Norfolk--led the sortie that drove the boastful Pechell’s men
helter-skelter back to their ships. On Craney Island he fired the
_Merrimac_ and retreated ashore, leaving her to blow up on the morning
of the 11th at 5 o’clock.
The _Monitor_ lasted a few months longer. She was ordered to Beaufort,
North Carolina, in tow of the _Rhode Island_, and sailed from Hampton
Roads on the afternoon of December 29, 1862. The _Passaic_, in tow of
the _State of Georgia_, went along. On the morning of January 2d a long
swell set in with a wind that grew to a gale, and just before midnight
she foundered, although not until all but sixteen of her crew were
saved.
[Illustration: Destruction of the _Merrimac_ off Craney Island.
_From a lithograph published by Currier & Ives._]
If the reader would know the effect of this fight on the navies of the
world, let him compare the best ships afloat in 1860--the old-style
ships with lofty masts and swelling canvas--with the latest designs of
battle-ships. For the old frigates all disappeared, one may say, when
the _Cumberland_ went, and the turreted floating fort has followed in
the wake of the _Monitor_.