Ironclads Battles to a Draw

Today’s installment concludes The USS Monitor Versus The CSS Merrimac,
our selection from Young Folks History of the War for the Union by John Denison Champlin published in 1881.

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Previously in The USS Monitor Versus The CSS Merrimac.

Time: March 9, 1862
Place: Hampton Roads, Virginia

As the Merrimac approached, the Monitor slipped out from behind the Minnesota and steamed straight at her. She looked like a pygmy beside the great mailed battery, whose black sides rose higher than the top of her turret. The crew of the Merrimac did not know what to make of the odd little craft, that had appeared as suddenly as if it had risen from the depths of the sea, but they soon found out that it had teeth, for when the Monitor had come within a hundred yards of her foe, she opened fire with her great guns. The Merrimac, astonished at her reception, threw open her ports and poured into her several broadsides such as had sunk the wooden ships; but the steel shot glanced as harmlessly from her turret as had the balls of the Cumberland and the Congress from her own armor the day before, and her crew cried out in wonder, “The cheese-box is made of iron!” From eight o’clock until noon the battle raged. The Monitor, more easily managed than her antagonist, sailed round and round the Merrimac, firing and receiving her broadsides in return, the two being often so near to each other that their sides touched. Once the Merrimac got aground but getting afloat again she turned savagely upon the Monitor and ran directly at her, hoping to run her down. But though she struck her so hard that the Monitor’s crew were nearly thrown off their feet, she did not damage the vessel in the least.

The Merrimac, finding that she was only wasting her ammunition on the Monitor, fired a shell into the Minnesota, setting her on fire. Another shell struck the boiler of a tugboat near the Minnesota and blew her up. But the Monitor was not to be cheated in this way. She steamed up between the Minnesota and the Merrimac and renewed the battle. The Merrimac now trained her guns on the Monitor’s pilot-house, which was built of wrought-iron beams a foot thick. A solid shot broke one of these beams and drove it inward an inch and a half. Lieutenant Worden, who at the time had his eyes close to a slit between the bars, watching the Merrimac, was severely wounded in the face so as to lose his eyesight for a long time. He was therefore obliged to give up the command to Lieutenant Greene, who continued the fight. But after a few more broadsides, the Merrimac, finding that she could do nothing with her enemy, gave up the battle and steamed back to Norfolk, followed by her gunboats.

The breaking of the beam in the pilot-house was the only damage the Monitor received, although she was struck twenty two times. The Merrimac’s iron beak was twisted, some of her armor plates damaged, her smoke- and steam-pipes riddled, and her anchor and flagstaffs shot away. Two of her guns also had their muzzles shot off. The Monitor returned to Fort Monroe and remained there on the watch for her rival, but the Merrimac did not see fit to try her mettle again. The Minnesota was lightened and put afloat again in the following night, to the delight of her captain and crew, who had fought her so nobly and under such trying circumstances.

Honors were showered on Ericsson, the inventor, and on Worden, the commander, of the Monitor, for all felt that to them was due the deliverance from great peril. Chief Engineer Stimers, who was on the Monitor during the battle, wrote to Captain Ericsson as follows: “I congratulate you on your great success. Thousands have this day blessed you. I have heard whole crews cheer you. Every man feels that you have saved this place to the nation by furnishing us with the means to whip an iron-clad frigate that was, until our arrival, having it all her own way with our most powerful vessels.” But the Monitor did far more than save a few ships and a fort -— it settled the question of naval power in favor of the Union, and taught the nations of the Old World who wished to see our country divided that it would be dangerous for them to interfere in the quarrel. The Government, which had built the Monitor on trial, recognized her great value and at once began to construct other vessels of the same model, and by the next year the United States had a fleet of iron ships afloat able to defend their coasts against the navies of all the rest of the world.

Lieutenant Worden was so shocked by the concussion of the shot which had so nearly blinded him that he was insensible for some time. When he came to himself his first question was, “Have I saved the Minnesota?”

“Yes,” was the reply, “and whipped the Merrimac.”

“Then I don’t care what becomes of me,” he answered.

McKean Buchanan, brother of the commander of the Merri mac, was a paymaster on the Congress at the time of the battle; but, desiring to do active duty, he asked the commander to give him a place on the upper decks. He served gallantly through the action, and in his report to the Navy Department he said, “Thank God, I did some service to my beloved country.”

Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, the commander of the Congress, who was noted for his bravery, fell before the ship surrendered. When his father, the veteran Commodore Joseph Smith, who was on duty at Washington, saw by the first dispatch from Fort Monroe that the Congress had raised the white flag, he only remarked quietly, “Then Joe’s dead.” The feeling that his son would never surrender his trust while alive was well founded. The ship’s flag was not lowered until his son had fallen.

This ends our series of passages on The USS Monitor Versus The CSS Merrimac by John Denison Champlin from his book Young Folks History of the War for the Union published in 1881. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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