In the spring, 1862, spies and foreign officers who had seen the rebel
ram _Merrimac_ being built at Norfolk, reported her as formidable. The
United States _Galena_, our first ironclad, was a failure. There was no
vessel of the kind to deal with the monster save Ericsson's floating
battery, ready for sea in March, called the _Monitor_, as a warning to
Great Britain, expected to interfere on behalf of the South and raise
the blockade over the cotton ports. This craft with a revolving turret
was just as much of a new idea as its prototype.
On March 8, the _Merrimac_ came out of Norfolk and ran down the
_Cumberland_ sloop of war; blew the _Congress_ to splinters, and
compelled her being blown up to save her from the enemy; the
_Minnesota_ was run aground to prevent being rammed. The victor
returned to her dock to make ready for a fresh onslaught. The effect
was profound; it seemed no exaggeration to suppose that the
irresistible conqueror would pass through the United States fleet at
Hampton Roads and, speeding along the coast, reduce New York to the
most onerous terms or to ashes.
On Sunday, the ninth, the _Monitor_ arrived after a sea passage,
showing she rode too low for ocean navigation. Though in no fit state
for battle, no time was allowed her, as the _Merrimac_ ran out to exult
over the ruins of the encounter. The _Monitor_ threw herself in her
way, bore her broadside without injury, and her shock with impunity,
but on the other hand hurled her extremely heavy ball in, under her
water-line. The ram backed out, and, wheeling and putting on full
steam, returned to her haven. She was, it appears, too low to cross the
bar to go up to Richmond, and was not ocean-going; she was blown up
when Yorktown was evacuated by the Confederates in May, 1862.
The President had said of her defeater, to some naval officers: "I
think she will be the veritable sling with the stone to smite the
Philistine _Merrimac_."
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