A New Era for the United States Navy--Opening of the Great Civil
War--John Lorimer Worden--Battle Between the _Monitor_ and
_Merrimac_--Death of Worden.
The War for the Union ushered in a new era for the American navy. Steam
navigation had been fully established some years before. As all my
readers no doubt know, the first successful steamboat in this country
was the _Clermont_, made by Robert Fulton, which ascended the Hudson in
the summer of 1807. The average speed of the pioneer boat was about five
miles an hour, so that the trip occupied more than thirty hours. This
great invention was a novelty, and, like many others of a similar
nature, it required considerable time for it to come into use. The first
western steamboat was built at Pittsburg in 1811. It gave an impetus to
river navigation by steam, and before long the boats were ploughing the
principal streams of the country. The first steamer to cross the
Atlantic was the _Savannah_, which made the voyage in 1819, but ocean
navigation was not fairly begun until 1838, when the _Sirius_ and _Great
Western_ made the voyage from England to the United States. It is a
noteworthy fact that one of the greatest of English scientists, after
demonstrating that ocean navigation by steam was impossible, was a
passenger on the _Great Western_ on her first trip across the Atlantic.
When the great Civil War burst upon the country the National Government
not only failed to comprehend the gigantic nature of the struggle, but
was almost wholly unprepared for it. The navy consisted of 90 vessels,
of which only 42 were in commission, while 21 were unfit for service,
and of those in commission there were but 11, carrying 134 guns, that
were in American waters. The remainder were scattered over the waters of
the globe, such being the policy of President Buchanan's Secretary of
the Navy, who, like the Secretary of War and other members of the
Presidential Cabinet, were secessionists who did all they could to pave
the way for the establishment of the Southern Confederacy.
On the authority of Maclay, the total number of officers of all grades
in the navy on August 1, 1861, was 1,457, in addition to whom an immense
volunteer force was called for and 7,500 volunteer officers were
enrolled before the close of the war. Three hundred and twenty-two
officers resigned from the United States navy and entered that of the
seceding States, of which 243 were officers of the line. The 7,600
sailors in the navy at the opening of the war was increased to 51,500
before the close of hostilities.
In a work of this nature the difficulty is to select the most striking
and interesting incidents from the scores that formed a part of the War
for the Union. One of the many heroes who was brought into prominence
was John Lorimer Worden, who was born in Dutchess County, N.Y., March
12, 1818. He entered the navy when sixteen years old and became a
lieutenant in 1840. His services in the Mexican War were unimportant and
he was a first lieutenant of the Brooklyn Navy Yard when the Civil War
broke out.
In the month of April, 1861, when a conflict was inevitable, the
Government was anxious to send dispatches to Captain Adams commanding
the fleet at Pensacola, who was waiting for orders to reinforce with two
companies of artillery, that post being in danger of capture by the
Confederates. The dispatches intrusted to Lieutenant Worden were orders
for such reinforcements to be made.
It was so delicate and dangerous a duty, since Worden was compelled to
make his way through the South which was aflame with secession
excitement, that he committed the dispatches to memory and then
destroyed them. He applied to General Bragg in command of the
Confederate forces in that neighborhood for permission to make a verbal
communication from the Secretary of War to Captain Adams. Permission was
given, and, going on board, Worden delivered his message like a boy
reciting his piece at school. Captain Adams gave him a written
acknowledgment of the receipt of the dispatches, adding that the orders
of the Government would be carried out.
Having thus cleverly eluded the suspicious watchfulness of the
authorities, Lieutenant Worden started for home, but when near
Montgomery, Ala., then the capital of the Confederacy, he was arrested,
taken from the train and thrown into prison. This was on the order of
General Bragg, who discovered how he had been outwitted, and the prompt
reinforcement prevented the capture of Fort Pickens, for which Bragg had
made every preparation. The post was held by the Unionists throughout
the war and was the only one south of Mason and Dixon's line so held.
Lieutenant Worden was kept a prisoner until the 13th of the following
November, when, his health having broken down, he was exchanged and sent
North. There he remained, slowly regaining his strength until March,
1862, when it fell to his lot to become a leading actor in one of the
most famous naval engagements in all history.
When war had fully begun the Union forces in charge of the Norfolk Navy
Yard saw they were not strong enough to prevent its capture by the
Confederates, who were arming for that purpose. They therefore set fire
to the numerous and valuable shipping there. Among the vessels scuttled
and sunk was the steam frigate _Merrimac_, at that time the finest
vessel in the service. In truth, she went down so quickly that very
little damage was done to her. The Confederates raised her, fastened a
huge iron snout or prow at the front, cut down her deck and encased her
with railroad iron, which sloped at an angle of forty-five degrees, and
was smeared on the outside with grease and tallow. Her enormous weight
made her draw more than twenty feet of water and when she was moving
slowly through the bay or river her appearance suggested the mansard
roof of a vast house. From what has been said it will be noted that the
_Merrimac_ was a genuine ironclad, something which had never been heard
of before.
[Illustration: BLOCKADE RUNNER--THE "MONITOR"--CAPTAIN ERICSSON.]
Regular news of the building of the _Merrimac_ (called the _Virginia_ by
the Confederates) was telegraphed to Washington by friends of the
Government. The authorities felt some uneasiness, but were far from
suspecting the terrible power for destructiveness possessed by the
monster. Captain Ericsson, the famous Swedish inventor, was constructing
on Long Island an ironclad about one-fourth the size of the _Merrimac_,
and he was urged to all possible speed in its completion. He kept his
men busy night and day and had it finished a day or two before the
completion of the _Merrimac_.
The _Merrimac_ carried ten guns, which fired shells and had a crew of
300 men, under the command of Commodore Franklin Buchanan, a former
officer of the United States navy. Late in the forenoon of March 8,
1862, a column of black smoke rising over the Norfolk Navy Yard gave
notice that the _Merrimac_ had started out at last on her mission of
destruction and death. As the enormous craft forged into sight it was
seen that she was accompanied by three gunboats ready to give what help
they could.
Five Union vessels were awaiting her in Hampton Roads. They were the
steam frigates _Minnesota_ and _Roanoke_ and the sailing frigates
_Congress_, _Cumberland_ and _St. Lawrence_, all of which immediately
cleared for action. Turning her frightful front toward the _Cumberland_,
the _Merrimac_ swept down upon her in grim and awful majesty. The
_Cumberland_ let fly with her terrific broadsides, which were powerful
enough to sink the largest ship afloat, but the tons of metal hurled
with inconceivable force skipped off the greased sides of the iron roof
and scooted away for hundreds of yards through the startled air.
The prodigious broadsides were launched again and again, but produced no
more effect than so many paper wads from a popgun. The iron prow of the
_Merrimac_ crashed through the wooden walls of the _Cumberland_ as if
they were cardboard, and, while her crew were still heroically working
their guns, the _Cumberland_ went down, with the red flag, meaning "no
surrender," flying from her peak. Lieutenant Morris succeeded in saving
himself, but 121 were lost out of the crew of 376.
Having destroyed the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ now made for the
_Congress_, which had been vainly pelting her with her broadsides. The
_Congress_ was aground and so completely at the mercy of the _Merrimac_,
which raked her fore and aft, that every man would have been killed had
not the sign of surrender been displayed. As it was, her commander and
100 of the crew were slain by the irresistible fire of the tremendous
ironclad.
By this time the fearful spring afternoon was drawing to a close and
the _Merrimac_ labored heavily back to Sewall's Point, intending to
return on the morrow and continue her work of destruction.
The news of what the _Merrimac_ had done was telegraphed throughout the
South and North. In the former it caused wild rejoicing and raised hope
that before the resistless might of the new ironclad the North would be
compelled to make terms and save her leading seacoast cities from
annihilation by acknowledging the Southern Confederacy. The national
authorities were thrown into consternation. At a special meeting of the
President's Cabinet Secretary of War Stanton expressed his belief that
the _Merrimac_ would appear in front of Washington and compel the
authorities to choose between surrender and destruction, and that the
principal seaports would be laid under contribution.
But at that very time the hastily completed _Monitor_ was speeding
southward under the command of Lieutenant Worden, who had risen from a
sick bed to assume the duty which no one else was willing to undertake.
Her crew numbered 16 officers and 42 men, with Lieutenant S. Dana Green
as executive officer. Her voyage to Hampton Roads was difficult and of
the most trying nature to the officers and crew, who were nearly
smothered by gas. The boat would have foundered had not the weather been
unusually favorable, but she reached Hampton Roads on the night of March
8 and took a position beside the _Minnesota_, ready and eager for the
terrific fray of the morrow. The _Monitor_ carried two 11-inch Dahlgren
guns and fired solid shot.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE "MERRIMAC" AND "MONITOR."]
When the _Merrimac_ steamed back the _Monitor_ moved out from her
position and boldly advanced to meet her. The huge monster and smaller
craft, whose appearance suggested the apt comparison of a cheese box on
a raft, silently drew near each other until within a hundred yards, when
the smaller opened with a shot to which the larger replied. The battle
was now between two ironclads. If the shots of the _Monitor_ glanced
harmlessly off of the _Merrimac_ those of the latter were equally
ineffective against the _Monitor_. The latter had the advantage of being
so much smaller that many of the shells of the _Merrimac_ missed her
altogether. Those which impinged against the pilot house or turret did
no harm, while the lesser boat was able to dart here and there at will,
dodging the _Merrimac_ and ramming her when she chose, though such
tactics accomplished nothing. All attempts to run down the _Monitor_
were vain. The novel battle continued for four hours, when the
_Merrimac_, unable to defeat her nimble antagonist, steamed back to
Norfolk and the strange contest--the first between ironclads--was over.
The _Monitor_ had proven her inestimable value and was held in reserve
by the Government for future emergencies. But the first battle between
the two proved the last. Some months later, when the Union troops
advanced upon Norfolk, the _Merrimac_ was blown up to prevent her
falling into the hands of the Federals, while at the close of the year
the _Monitor_ foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras.
This fight marked an era in the history of naval warfare. The days of
wooden vessels were numbered. All nations saw that their warships to be
effective must be ironclad, and the reader does not need to be reminded
that such is the fact to-day respecting the navy of every civilized
nation.
During this memorable fight a shell from the _Merrimac_ lifted the iron
plate of the pilot house of the _Monitor_ and disabled Lieutenant Worden
by driving the fragments into his face, while he was peering out of the
peep-hole. He was compelled to give way to Lieutenant Green, who handled
the little ironclad throughout the remainder of the fight.
Lieutenant Worden never fully recovered from the injuries received in
his fight with the _Merrimac_. As soon as he was able to take an active
command he asked the privilege of doing so. In charge of the _Montauk_,
of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, he destroyed, while under a
heavy fire, the Confederate steamer _Nashville_ and participated in the
unsuccessful attack upon Charleston. He received the thanks of Congress
and was promoted to be a commander for his services with the _Monitor_.
From 1870 to 1874 he was superintendent of the Naval Academy at
Annapolis, becoming commodore in 1868, rear admiral in 1872 and was
retired in 1886. It was said that he never was without pain from the
injuries received in the battle with the _Merrimac_ until his death,
October 18, 1897.