Had the Merrimac been successful, every other craft on the high seas, at home or abroad, would have been at her mercy. Going about like some wild monster of the deep, with her iron tusk and her coat of mail, impervious to shot or shell, she could have destroyed whole fleets and sent them whirling to the bottom. New York city would have been unsafe-every city on the coast would have been unsafe, and the probable ravages of this iron Leviathan can hardly be properly estimated. What might have happened but for the Monitor, who can tell? But the Monitor, Providentially-c -can we believe otherwise?-proved to be our David of the seas who slew the iron-clad Goliah and saved to us our navy.

Instigated and pushed forward by private enterprise, she was successfully launched in the face of all adverse prediction, and arrived off Newport News barely in time to arrest the Merrimac on her errand of wholesale destruction.

C. S. Bushnell, Esq., a capitalist of New Haven, Connectieut, learning of Captain Ericsson's plan for an invulnerable sea battery, was the prime mover in the building of the Monitor. That gentleman insisted on taking the model to Washington, in company with Ericsson, and submitting the new and strange diagrams to the Government Naval Board. After persistent efforts he was successful in obtaining a guarantee of payment when the Monitor should demonstrate her ability to do all that was promised concerning her.

The steam frigate Merrimac, scuttled and sunk at the burning of the Norfolk navy yard, was considered one of the finest ships in the American navy. She mounted forty guns and was estimated at four thousand tons burden.

"This magnificent structure was raised by the Rebels and cut down, leaving only the hull, which was exceedingly massive and solid. Over this they constructed a sloping shield of railroad iron, firmly plated together, and extending two feet under the water. Its appearance was much like the slanting roof of a house, set upon a ship's hull like an extinguisherthe ends of the vessel fore and aft, projecting a few feet beyond this roof. The gun-deck was completely inclosed by this shield, and nothing appeared above it but a short smoke-stack and two flag-staffs. The weight of iron was so immense that the ship nearly broke her back in launching; but the fracture *We quote from Willard Glazier.

was in preparation, was well known at the North, and her speedy appearance was daily predicted by the press."

On Saturday the 8th of March, 1862-the same day that Fremont fought the battle of Pea Ridge-the Merrimac steamed into the mouth of the James River from Norfolk, headed towards our blockading fleet off Newport News. The old passenger steamers, the Jamestown and Yorktown, plying formerly between New York and Richmond, and now refitted into Confederate war vessels, accompanied the Merrimac, and in her train came a retinue of armed tugs and other war craft. The frigates Cumberland and Congress, doing guard duty off Newport News, were anchored half a mile from shore as the Merrimac came in sight. Unmindful of the broadsides which the two frigates hurled against her iron sides, she steered straight for the Cumberland, and rushing upon her, struck her amidships, inflicting a death blow. Then, reversing her engine, she went back, and making a second plunge, again struck the Cumberland in the same place, crushing through the whole side of the ship.

At the same time the guns of the iron-clad demon thundered destruction through the decks of the ill-fated Cumberland, strewing her floors with the dead, wounded, and dying. But her brave crew under command of Lieutenant George M. Morris, with a heroism which rose to the pitch of sublimity, still fought on, as long as a gun of the sinking ship remained unsubmerged. "One sailor with both his legs shot off, hobbled up to his gun on the bleeding stumps and pulling the lanyard, fired it, then fell back dead."

The heroic commander and the no less heroic crew proudly refused to lower the beloved stars and stripes to the flag of Rebellion, preferring to sink with the ship rather than surrender. Rapidly the noble Cumberland went down, her guns thundering as she sank, the last shot being fired from her deck while the gunner who pulled the trigger stood kneedeep in water. After the frigate was engulfed, "a few feet of her top-masts rose above the wave, and there the stars and stripes still floated, victorious in death." "The surface of the water was now covered with fragments of the wreck, and with hundreds of men swimming towards the shore, while from all directions, boats were pushing out for their rescue. About one hundred of the dead and wounded went down with the ship. While this multitude of men were struggling in the water, the steam propeller 'Whillden,' then lying under

the guns of Newport News, not half a mile off, Captain William Riggins commanding, instantly put off in the face of the resistless enemy and rescued a large number who would otherwise have been drowned. Probably her humane errand saved her from the destruction to which she was exposed, since the moment after she had picked up the last man, a shot from the Merrimac passed through her boiler, thus emphatically ordering her away."

It had taken only three-quarters of an hour to dispatch the Cumberland, and the destroying demon in mailed armor, made the Congress her next object of attention.

That vessel being only partly manned was grounded while endeavoring to escape from the fatal clutches of the Merrimac, who came on, resistless as doom.

At a distance of about one hundred yards from the helples Congress, the Merrimac discharged her terrible broadsides into the disabled ship, while the two Confederate gun-boats, the Jamestown and Yorktown, rushed up on either side and added their rain of red-hot shot to that of the Merrimac. The dead and dying on the decks of the Congress were mingled sickening confusion with dismantled guns and torn rigging. Her dry timbers took fire in three places, and, fanned by the fresh breeze, soon the billows of flame rolled above the billows of water. With her commanding officer killed and her wounded facing the prospect of death by the slow torture of burning, the Congress, at last, surrendered. Bnt with horrible inhumanity, the Merrimac fired another broadside into her while the white flag was flying at her masthead.

The Congress burned until midnight when, the fire reaching her magazine, she exploded with a noise which shook the bay and sent the fiery fragments, like a thousand rockets, into the air.

The two remaining frigates of the fleet, the St. Lawrence and the Minnesota, were next in order of attack, and, strangely enough, they were both aground. But the Minnesota sent a broadside from her heavy guns into the Merrimac, at short range, and it was thought that some of the shot, entering her port-holes, damaged her machinery, and she did not proceed with the attack.

Night was coming on, and after some hesitation the Merrimac steamed to her anchorage behind Craney Island.

The darkness that settled over Hampton Roads that night was nothing to the darkness of despair which wrapped the hearts of the fleet in its pall of gloom. The garrison at Newport News and Fortress Monroe could be dispatched as easily as the Cumberland had been, and even Washington might not be safe from the devastation which the Merrimac threatened. For no one knew whether she might not be able to ascend the Potomac. In an hour the strength of our navy and coast fortresses had crumbled before this single iron-cladmistress of the high seas.

As the disastrous news was flashed over the wires through the North, consternation filled all hearts. No one knew where the ravages thus begun would end. It did not seem improbable that this single vessel might solve the problem of the war in favor of slavery and the South as against Union and liberty.

At about ten o'clock on that eventful Saturday night the anxious garrison at Fortress Monroe descried a singular looking craft approaching from the sea, towed by two small steamers. It resembled "nothing in the heavens above or the earth beneath or in the waters under the earth."

The raft proved to be the new Ericsson battery, the Monitor, in tow of the gunboats Sachem and Currituck. Only twenty-four inches of hull were visible above the water, and the small, round, revolving turret nine feet high, in the centre of the battery, mounted only two guns. Beside her big adversary, the little Monitor appeared very insignificant, both in size and armament-her two guns being pitted against the ter carried by the Merrimac.

An eye witness gives the following vivid description of the scenes and emotions of that long-to-be-remembered Saturday night:

"That morrow! How anxiously we waited for it! how much we feared its results! How anxious our Saturday eve of preparation! At sundown there was nothing to dispute the empire of the seas with the Merrimac, and had a land attack been made by Magruder then, God only knows what our fate would have been. The St. Lawrence and the Minnesota aground and helpless, the Roanoke with a broken shaftthese were our defenses by sea; while on land we were doing all possible to resist a night invasion; but who could hope that would have much efficiency? Oh! what a night that was; that night I never can forget. There was no fear during its long hours-danger, I find, does not bring that--but there was a longing for some interposition of God and waiting upon Him from whom we felt our help must come, in earnest, fervent prayer, while not neglecting all the means of martial defence He had placed in our hands. Fugitives from Newport News kept arriving; ladies and children had walked the long ten miles from Newport News, feeling that their presence only embarrassed their brave husbands. Sailors from the Congress and Cumberland came, one of them with his ship's flag bound about his waist, as he had swum with it ashore, determined the enemy should never trail it in dishonor as a trophy. Dusky fugitives, the contrabands came, mournfully fleeing from a fate worse than death-slavery. These entered my cabin hungry and weary, or passed it in long, sad procession. The heavens were aflame with the burning Congress. The hotel was crowded with fugitives, and private hospitality was taxed to the utmost. But there were no soldiers among the flying host; all in our camps at Newport News and camp Hamilton were at the post of duty, undismayed, and ready to do all and dare all for their country. The sailors came only to seek another chance at the enemy, since the bold Cumberland had gone down in the deep waters, and the Congress had gone upward, as if a chariot of fire, to convey the manly souls whose bodies had perished in that conflict, upward to heaven. I had lost several friends there; yet not lost, for they are saved who do their duty to their country and their God, as these had done. We did not pray in vain.

"The heavy night hung dark the hills and waters o'er," but the night was not half so heavy as our hearts, nor so dark as our prospects. All at once a speck of light gleamed on the distant wave; it moved; it came nearer and nearer and at ten o'clock at night, the Monitor appeared. When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes.' I never more firmly believed in special providences than at that hour. Even sceptics were converted for the moment and said God has sent her!" But how insignificant she looked; she was but a speck on the dark blue sea at night, almost a laughable object by day. The enemy called her a cheese-box on a raft, and the comparison is a good one. Could she meet the Merrimac? The mor

row must determine, for under God, the Monitor is our only hope."

Lieutenant J. L. Worden was in command of the Monitor, and reporting to the flag-ship Roanoke on his arrival at Fortress Monroe, received orders to lay by the Minnesota and guard her in case of a night attack.

Sunday morning, March 9th, dawned brightly over the serene waters of the Chesapeake, and shortly after nine o'clock, the Merrimac with her retinue of the previous day was seen approaching from the direction of Sewall's Point.

Instantly the Monitor put herself in fighting trim, the dead-light covers were put on, the iron hatches closed, and the officers took positions at their several posts. Lieutenant Green was in charge of the gunners, and Chief Engineer Stimers controlled the movements of the revolving turret.

The mammoth Merrimac confidently advanced and opened fire upon the Minnesota; but before a second broadside could be delivered, the little Monitor steamed out from behind the grounded vessel, and when at a distance of about half a mile, the order to fire was given, "The gun was aimed, the huge, iron pendulum swung aside, the men sprang to the gun-ropes, a momentary creaking of pulleys was heard, then a thundering report and a solid ball weighing a hundred and seventy pounds, was hurled against the mailed side of the Merrimac. The Monitor had uttered her maiden speech, and it was a challenge which no antagonist could venture to disregard."

The Merrimac staggered under this unexpected blow and pausing in her attack on the Minnesota, turned her attention to the little Monitor. Immediately, her ten terrible guns thundered their broadside against her diminutive antagonist, and when the smoke lifted and revealed the turret of the Monitor unharmed, and the stars and stripes still gaily floating aloft, the Merrimac rushed upon her to ride her down as she had done the Cumberland and Congress. But a different sort of graft grappled with her now and she found a foeman worthy of her steel. "Reserve your fire," said Lieutenant Worden to the gunners, aim deliberately and do not lose a shot." The Merrimac struck the Monitor at full speed, but caused only a slight jar to the staunch little craft, as the iron prow of this mailed monster glided harmlessly over the nearly submerged hull of the Ericsson Battery. The Merrimac, however, received a severe gash as the sharp edge of the Monitor cut her coat of mail, and a bad leak was the result.

The contest now waxed fierce and heavy as the two vessels, alternately receding and approaching, poured their volleys of shot into each other in rapid succession, while the smoke of the terrible battle wrapped the actors in a dark and impenetrable cloud. With "muzzle to muzzle they hailed their heavy metal on each others sides." 'Flash and thunder-roar burst forth incessantly from the tumultuous mælstrom of darkness, and solid balls weighing a hundred and seventy pounds, glancing from the armor, ricochetted over the water in all directions from one to two miles."

For four long hours this terrible duel on which the safety of a nation hung, continued, but when the smoke of battle

lifted, it revealed the Monitor uninjured and triumphant, and the Merrimac pierced in three places, wounded unto death. Compelled to signal for help, she was taken in tow by two tugs who helped the crippled giant back to Norfolk.

Just as the Merrimac was firing her last shot Lieutenant Worden was struck prostrate by the concussion of a hundredpound shot, which hit the grating just in front of his eyes, filling them with powder and minute fragments of iron. When he "revived from the stunning blow he had received," his first question was, "Have I saved the Minnesota?" "Yes," was the reply, "and whipped the Merrimac." Then," he rejoined, "I care not what becomes of me."

When Lieutenant Wise visited the Monitor after the contest was ended, every thing was as serene on board the victorious craft as though nothing had happened. "One officer stood by the mirror leisurely combing his hair, another was washing some blood from his hands, while the gallant commander lay on a settee with his eyes bandaged, giving no signs of the pain that racked him."

Thousands of anxious spectators lined the shore from Newport News to Fortress Monroe, and from the Confederate fortifications across the James, watching with breathless interest the furious combat. "No tongue can tell the joy which thrilled the hearts of the National troops at the result. Cheer after cheer rose from the fleet and from the fortress, and rolled like reverberating thunder along the shores and over the bay."

The Merrimac had rendered her last service. She never recovered from the fatal blows dealt her by the guns of the Monitor, and months of repair did not restore her usefulness. But the brave little Monitor came out of this trial of fire unscathed. Of all the twenty-two shot which had struck her in every part, only one had produced a noticeable indentation.

This one, coming in contact with a huge iron beam, made a deflection in the beam of an inch and a half. A slight dent on the outside of the Monitor was the only evidence that the prow of the Merrimac had struck her in a vain attempt to ride her down.

The Rebels published no official account of the losses on board the Merrimac in this encounter, but a statement was made in the Norfolk Day Book, estimating their loss at nine killed and eleven wounded. The statement, however, was contradicted by some other Southern journals. Two or three million dollars worth of property was lost to the Government with the Cumberland and Congress, to say nothing of the loss of life.

Considering the fact that the construction of the Merrimac was known for months previous to her appearance, and that an accurate description of her was said to have been sent the War and Navy Departments, by General Wool, three weeks before she left Norfolk, on her mission of destruction, the apathy of the Naval Board is something to be wondered at. But the disaster which might have overtaken the nation through their negligence was happily averted by the private enterprise which launched the Monitor.