The Great Republic by the Master Historians The Monitor and the Merrimack byBancroft, Hubert H.
[The civil war in America made in military science one step of progress of the
highest importance: it revolutionized naval combats. From the earliest days of
naval warfare nearly up to the year 1861 the wooden ship was the type of warlike
vessels, oaken beams being the strongest bulwarks behind which fought the
gallant sailors of the past. Somewhat previous to the outbreak of the war in
American experiments in iron armor for ships had been made in England and
France, but little had been done towards proving the efficacy of this expedient
in war. The value of this method was first practically proved in the American
war. The idea of coating their vessels with iron at once arose in the minds of
the combatants, both sides simultaneously trying the experiment. Thus, in a
crude manner at first, was brought into practical use that feature in naval
architecture which has made such extraordinary progress within the succeeding
twenty-five years.
At the opening of the war the navy was very weak, and its ships were widely
scattered, there being, indeed, but one efficient war-vessel on the Northern
coast when the first shots were fired. The dock-yards were also ill provided.
Buchanan's Secretary of the Navy had been careful to strengthen the South and
weaken the North during the later months of his term of office. Active steps
were at once taken, however, for the creation of a navy, and war-vessels were
built with remarkable rapidity. In this labor the idea of building iron-clads at
once came into prominence. In the attack on Fort Sumter the Confederates had
used a floating battery, composed of a raft with sloping bulwarks of iron. This
expedient was quickly extended. The Merrimack, a large frigate which had been
sunk at the abandonment of the Gosport navy-yard, at Norfolk, was raised with
little difficulty, and the Confederates proceeded to cover the hull with a
sloping roof of iron, the covering of mail extending beneath the water.
The Federal government, in like manner, proceeded to build iron-clads, for both
river- and ocean-service. Gunboats, to be covered with iron mail, for use on the
Western rivers, were contracted for, and built with such rapidity by Mr. Eads,
of St. Louis, that in less than a hundred days after their commencement a fleet
of eight heavily-armored steamboats were fully ready for service. Several other
vessels, more thinly coated, but musket-proof, were built. These gained the
title of "tin-clads." Mortar-boats were constructed, similarly protected.
For ocean-service, in addition to the numerous fleet of wooden vessels intended
for use in the blockade of the Southern ports, some of them very large and
powerful, an efficient fleet of iron-clads was prepared. Originally contracts
were entered into for three such vessels, of different character. One was a
small corvette, the Galena, covered with iron three inches thick. This
experiment proved a failure, as solid shot easily penetrated that thickness of
mail. A second, the New Ironsides, was a heavily-coated frigate, which did good
service. The third brought into play a new idea in naval architecture, the
invention of John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer. It consisted of a nearly-
submerged, flat-surfaced hull, surmounted by a revolving turret strongly plated
and containing a few powerful guns. This vessel, the Monitor, was to be built in
one hundred days, and fortunately the contract was executed within the
prescribed time. The great success of her first engagement encouraged the
government to build several other vessels of the same type, some of them being
very large and powerful. Several of these vessels were provided with rams, of
solid wood and iron, calculated to pierce any vessel whose sides they might have
an opportunity to strike. The Merrimack was also furnished with a ram, and the
Confederates afterwards prepared several strong vessels of this sort, all of
which, however, met with serious disasters. It may be said here that the use of
the Monitor idea in warfare practically ended with our civil war. The
development of the ironclad has proceeded in a different direction.
Another idea was adopted which also has had a revolutionizing effect on naval
warfare, that of the employment of very heavy guns. Up to 1860 the English navy
used no guns of larger calibre than eight inches. America had long given her
ships a more powerful armament than those of England. In 1856 American frigates
were afloat armed with guns of nine-, ten-, and eleven-inch calibre. With the
outbreak of the war much heavier guns were made, the twenty-inch Rodman throwing
a ball of eleven hundred pounds' weight, with a range of four and a half miles.
The progress of iron-clad naval architecture has since rendered the use of very
heavy guns an absolute necessity, and experiments in this direction have kept
pace with those in thickening the steel coating of ships, until both seem to
have nearly reached their limit of possible utility.
The remarks here made seem necessary as preliminary to the description of
perhaps the most remarkable event in naval warfare which exists in the annals of
history, the encounter of the first two iron-clad ships, with the sudden and
radical revision of previously-existing ideas to which it gave rise. A
description of this highly interesting event we select from Draper's "Civil War
in America."]
When the navy-yard at Norfolk was seized by Virginia, among the ships partly
destroyed was the steam-frigate Merrimack, of forty guns. She was one of the
finest vessels in the navy, and was worth, when equipped, nearly a million and a
quarter of dollars.
She had been set on fire, and also scuttled, by the officers who had charge of
the yard. Her upper work alone, therefore, had suffered. He hull and machinery
were comparatively uninjured.
The Confederate government caused her to be raised and turned into an
extemporaneous iron-clad. Her hull was cut down, and a stout timber roof built
upon it. This was then strongly plated with three layers of iron, each one inch
and a quarter thick, the first layer being placed horizontally, the second
obliquely, the third perpendicularly. The armature reached two feet below the
water-line, and rose ten feet above. The ends were constructed in the same
manner. A false bow was added for the purpose of dividing the water, and beyond
it projected an iron beak Outwardly she presented the appearance of an iron roof
or ark. It was expected that, from her sloping armature, shots striking would
glance away. Her armament consisted of eight eleven-inch guns, four on each
side, and a one-hundred-pound rifled Armstrong gun at each end.
As the fact of her construction could not be concealed, the Confederate
authorities purposely circulated rumors to her disadvantage. It was said that
her iron was so heavy that she could hardly float; that her hull had been
seriously injured, and that she could not be steered. Of course they could have
no certain knowledge of her capabilities as a weapon of war, and, as was the
case with many officers of the national navy, perhaps they held her in light
esteem.
About mid-day on Saturday, March 8th [1862], she came down the Elizabeth River,
under the command of Franklin Buchanan, an officer who had abandoned the
national navy. She was attended by two armed steamboats, and was afterwards
joined by two others. Passing the sailing-frigate Congress, and receiving from
her her fire, she made her way to the sloop-of-war Cumberland, of twenty-four
guns and three hundred and seventy-six men. This ship had been placed across the
channel to bring her broadside to bear, and, as the Merrimack approached, she
received her with a rapid fire. At once one of the problems presented by the
Merrimack's construction was solved: the shot of the Cumberland, from thirteen
nine- and ten-inch guns, glanced from her armature "like so many peas."
Advancing with all the speed she had, and receiving six or eight broadsides
while so doing, she struck her antagonist with her iron beak just forward of the
main chains, and instantly opened her fire of shells from every gun she could
bring to bear. The battle was already decided. Through the hole she had made,
large enough for a man to enter, the water poured in. In vain Lieutenant Morris,
who commanded the Cumberland, worked the pumps to keep her afloat a few moments
more, hoping that a lucky shot might find some weaker place. He only abandoned
his guns as one after another the settling of the sinking ship swamped them in
the water. The last shot was fired by Matthew Tenney, from a gun on a level with
the water. That brave man then attempted to escape through the port-hole, but
was borne back by the incoming rush, and went down with the ship. With him went
down nearly one hundred dead, sick, wounded, and those who, like him, could not
extricate themselves. The Cumberland sank in fifty-four feet of water. The
commander of her assailant saw the flag of the unconquered but sunken ship still
flying above the surface. He was not a Virginian, but a Marylander by birth, and
had served under that flag for thirty-five years.
The sailing-frigate Congress, which had fired at the Merrimack as she passed,
and exchanged shots with the armed steamboats, had been run aground by her
commander with the assistance of a tug. The Merrimack now came up, and, taking a
position about one hundred and fifty yards from her stern, fired shell into her.
One shell killed seventeen men at one of the guns. Of the only two guns with
which she could reply, one was quickly dismounted, and the muzzle of the other
knocked off. The Merrimack ranged slowly backward and forward at less than one
hundred yards. In her helpless condition, the Congress took fire in several
places, and nearly half her crew were killed or wounded. Among the former was
her commander. The flag was therefore hauled down, and a tug came alongside to
take possession of her. But, fire being opened on the tug by some soldiers on
shore, the Merrimack recommenced shelling, doing the same again later in the
day, after the crew of the Congress had abandoned her. The Congress was set
thoroughly on fire. About midnight she blew up. Out of her crew of four hundred
and thirty-four men, only two hundred and eighteen survived. In little more than
two hours Buchanan had killed or drowned more than three hundred of his old
comrades.
When the Merrimack first came out, the commander of the steam-frigate Minnesota
got his ship under way, intending to butt the iron-clad and run her down. As he
passed Sewall's Point, he received the fire of a rifle battery there, and had
his mainmast injured. It was ebb tide; the Minnesota drew twenty-three feet of
water; at one part of the channel the depth was less, but, as the bottom was
soft, it was hoped that the ship could be forced over. She, however, took the
ground, and, in spite of every exertion, became immovable. The Merrimack, having
destroyee the Cumberland and Congress, now came down upon the Minnesota. Her
draft, however, prevented her coming nearer to her intended victim than a mile,
and the fire on both sides was comparatiely ineffective. But the armed
steamboats ventured nearer, and, with theirrifled gunds, killed and wounded
several men on board the Minnesota. On her part, she sent a shot through the
boiler of one of them. Night was coming on; the Merrimak did not venture to lie
out in the Roads: so, expecting another easy victory in the morning, she retiree
at seven p.m., with her consorts, behind Sewall's Point.
The Minnesota still lay fast on the mud-bank. The re-coil of her own firing had
forced her harder on. Attempts were made at high tide, and indeed, all through
the night, to get her off, but in vain. The steam-frigate Roanoke, disabled some
months previously by the breaking of her shaft, and the sailing-frigate St.
Lawrence, had both like-wise been aground, but had now gone down the Roads.
At nine o'clock that night Ericsson's new iron-clad turret-ship, the Monitor,
reached Fortress Monroe from New York. Every exertion had been made by her
inventor to get her out in time to meet the Merrimack; and the Confederates,
finding from their spies in New York that she would probably be ready, put a
double force on their frigate, and worked night and day. It is said that this
extra labor gained that one day in which the Merrimack destroyed the Cumberland
and the Congress.
The Monitor was commanded by Lieutenant John L. Worden. A dreadful passage of
three days had almost worn out her crew. The sea had swept over her decks; the
turret was often the only part above water. The tiller-rope was at one time
thrown off the wheel. The draft-pipe had been choked by the pouring down of the
waves. The men were half suffocated. The fires had been repeatedly extinguished.
Ventilation had, however, been obtained through the turret. Throughout the
previous afternoon Worden had heard the sound of the Cannoanding. He delayed but
a few minutes at the Fortress, and soon after midnight had anchored the Monitor
along-side the Minnesota (March 9).
Day broke, - a clear and beautiful Sunday. The flag of the Cumberland ws still
flying; the corpses of her defenders were floating about on the water. The
Merrimack approached to renew her attack. She ran down towards the Fortress, and
then came up the channel through which the Minnesota had passed. Worden at once
took his station at the peep-hole of his pilot-house, slid the Monitor before
the enemy, and gave the fire of his two eleven-inch guns. The shot of each was
one hundred and sixty-eight pounds' weight. Catesby Jones, who had taken command
of the Merrimack, Buchanan having been wounded the previous day, saw at once
that he had on his hands a very different antagonist from those of yesterday.
The turret was but a very small mark to fire at, nine feet by twenty; the shot
that struck squarely, penetrating into the iron; "it then broke short off, and
left its head sticking in." For the most part, the shot flew over the low deck,
missing their aim.
Five times the Merrimack tried to run the Monitor down, and at each time
received, at a few feet distance, the fire of the eleven-inch guns. In her
movements at one moment she got aground, and the light-drawing Monitor, steaming
round her, tried at every promising point to get a shot into her. Her armor at
last began to start and bend.
Unable to shake off the Monitor or to do her any injury, the Merrimack now
renewed her attempt on the frigate Minnesota, receiving from her a whole
broadside which struck squarely. "It was enough," said Captain Van Brunt, who
commanded the frigate, "to have blown out of the water any wooden ship in the
world." In her turn, she sent from her rifled bow-gun a shell through the
Minnesota's side; it exploded within her, tearing four of her rooms into one,
and setting her on fire. Anothr shell burst the boiler of the tug-boat Dragon,
which lay alongside the Minnesota. The frigate was firing on the ironclad solid
shot as fast as she could.
Once more the Monitor intervened between them, compelling her antagonist to
change position, in doing which the Merrimack again grounded, and again received
a whole broadside from the Minnesota. The blows she was receiving were beginning
to tell upon her. As soon as she could get clear, she ran down the bay, followed
by the Monitor. Suddenly she turned round, and attempted to run her tormentor
down. Her bak grated on the Monitor's deck, and was wrenched. The turret-ship
stood unharmed a blow like that which had sent the Cumberlad to the bottom; she
merely glided out from under her antagonist, and in the act of so doing gave her
a shot while almost in contact. It seemed to crush in her armor.
The Monitor now hauled off, for the purpose of hoisting more shot into her
turret. Catesby Jones thought he had silenced her, and that he might make
another attempt on the Minnesota. He, however, changed his course as the Monitor
steamed up, and it was seen that the Merrimack was sagging down at her stern.
She made the best of her way to Crancy Island. The battle was over; the turreted
Monitor had driven her from the field and won the victory.
The Minnesota had fired two hundred and forty-seven solid shot, two hundred and
eighty-two shells, and more than ten tons of powder. The Monitor fired forty-one
shot, and was struck twenty-two times. The last shell fired by the Merrimack at
her struck her pilot-house opposite the peep-hole, through which Worden at that
moment was looking. He was knocked down senseless and blinded by the explosion.
When consciousness returned, the first question this brave officer asked was,
"Did we save the Minnesota?"
The shattering of the pilot-house was the greatest injury that the Monitor
received. One of the iron logs, nine inches by twelve inches thick, was broken
in two.
On board the Merrrimack two were killed and nineteen woulded. She had lost her
iron prow, her starboard anchor, and all her boats; her armor was dislocated and
damaged; she leaked considerably; her steam-pipe and smoke-stack were riddled;
the muzzles of two of her gunds were shot away; the wood-work round one of the
ports was set on fire at every discharge.
In his report on the battle, Buchanan states that in fifteen minutes after the
action began he had run the Cumberland down; that he distinctly heard the crash
when she was struck, and that the fire his ship received did her some injury;
that there was great difficulty in managing the Merrimack when she was near the
mud, and that this was particularly the case in getting into position to attack
the Congress. It was while firing the red-hot shot and incendiary shell by which
that ship was burnt that he was himself wounded.
This engagement excited the most profound interest, throughout the civilized
world. It seemed as if the day of wooden navies was over. Nor was it alone the
superiority of iron as against wood that was settled by this combat: it showed
that a monitor was a better construction than a mailed broadside ship, and that
inclined armor was inferior to a turret.
[This opinion does not take into account the defects of the monitors as sea-
going vessels, which have prevented their coming into extended use. The original
Monitor foundered in a storm off Cape Hatteras during the same year. The
Merrimack was blown up on the abandonment of Norfolk, on May 11, 1862.]
