University of Virginia Library

THE MEETING OF THE VIRGINIA AND THE MONITOR.

The construction of the Monitor had been watched at the North with
the same interest that in the South had been felt concerning the Virginia,
and her appearance afloat was even more novel. The Monitor
was a small iron hull, upon which rested a large raft, surmounted by a
revolving circular iron turret. The hull was 124 feet long, and thirty-four

feet wide at the upper end. The raft projected at bow and stern,
and was fifty feet longer than the hull. The turret was eight inches
thick, nine feet high, and twenty feet inside diameter. In the turret
were two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns. Her draft was ten feet. This was
her first great advantage over the Virginia, that she could run into
shoal water. Her second point of superiority for the work before them
was, that she could turn anywhere, without appreciable loss of time.
No more accurate, dispassionate and interesting account of the
meeting of these two strange crafts can be given than that which
Lieutenant Jones gives in the paper already alluded to, which is as
follows:

"At 8 a.m. we got under way, as did the Patrick Henry, Jamestown
and Teaser. We stood towards the Minnesota, and opened fire on her.
The pilots were to have placed us half a mile from her, but we were not
at any time nearer than a mile. The Monitor commenced firing when
about a third of a mile distant. We soon approached, and were often
within a ship's length; once while passing we fired a broadside at her
only a few yards distant. She and her turret appeared to be under
perfect control. Her light draft enabled her to move about us at pleasure.
She once took position for a short time where we could not bring
a gun to bear on her. Another of her movements caused us great
anxiety; she made for our rudder and propeller, both of which could
have been easily disabled. We could only see her guns when they were
discharged. We wondered how proper aim could be taken in the very
short time the guns were in sight. The Virginia, however, was a large
target, and generally so near that the Monitor's shot did not often
miss. It did not appear to us that our shell had any effect upon the
Monitor. We had no solid shot; musketry was fired at the lookout
holes. In spite of all the care of our pilots we ran ashore, where we
remained over fifteen minutes. The Patrick Henry and Jamestown,
with great risk to themselves, started to our assistance. The Monitor
and Minnesota were in full play on us. A small rifle-gun on board the
Minnesota, or on the steamer alongside of her, was fired with remarkable
precision.

"When we saw that our fire made no impression on the Monitor, we
determined to run into her if possible. We found it a very difficult feat
to do. Our great length and draft, in a comparatively narrow channel,
with but little water to spare, made us sluggish in our movements,
and hard to steer and turn. When the opportunity was presented all
steam was put on; there was not, however, sufficient time to gather
full headway before striking. The blow was given with the broad
wooden stem, the iron prow having been lost the day before. The
Monitor received the blow in such a manner as to weaken the effect,

and the damage to her was trifling. Shortly after an alarming leak in
our bow was reported. It, however, did not long continue.

"Whilst contending with the Monitor, we received the fire of the
Minnesota, which we never failed to return when our guns could be
brought to bear. We set her on fire, and did her serious injury, though
much less than we then supposed. Generally the distance was too
great for effective firing. We blew up a steamer alongside of her.

"The fight had continued over three hours. To us the Monitor
appeared unharmed. We were, therefore, surprised to see her run off
into shoal water where our great draft would not permit us to follow,
and where our shell could not reach her. The loss of our prow and
anchor, and consumption of coal, water, etc., had lightened us so that
the lower part of the forward end of the shield was awash.

"We for some time waited the return of the Monitor to the Roads
After consultation it was decided we should return to the navy yard,
in order that the vessel should be brought down into the water and
completed. The pilots said that if we did not then leave, that we could
not pass the bar until noon of the next day. We, therefore, at 12 m.
quitted the Roads and stood for Norfolk. Had there been any sign of
the Monitor's willingness to renew the contest we should have remained
to fight her. We left her in the shoal water to which she had withdrawn,
and which she did not leave until after we had crossed the bar
on our way to Norfolk.

"The official report says: `Our loss is two killed and nineteen
wounded. The stem is twisted and the ship leaks; we have lost the
prow, starboard anchor, and all the boats; the armor is somewhat
damaged, the steam-pipe and smoke-stack both riddled, the muzzles of
the two guns shot away; the colors were hoisted to the smoke-stack,
and several times cut down from it.' None were killed or wounded in
the fight with the Monitor. The only damage she did was to the
armor. She fired forty-one shots. We were enabled to receive most of
them obliquely. The effect of a shot striking obliquely on the shield
was to break all the iron, and sometimes to displace several feet of the
outside course; the wooden backing would not be broken through.
When a shot struck directly at right angles, the wood would also be
broken through, but not displaced. Generally the shot was much
scattered; in three instances two or more struck near the same place,
in each case causing more of the iron to be displaced, and the wood to
bulge inside. A few struck near the water-line. The shield was never
pierced; though it was evident that two shots striking in the same
place would have made a large hole through everything.

"The ship was docked, a prow of steel and wrought iron put on and
a course of two-inch iron on the hull below the roof extending in length

180 feet. Want of time and of material prevented its completion.
The damage to the armor was repaired; wrought-iron port shutters
were fitted, etc. The rifle guns were supplied with bolts of wrought and
chilled iron. The ship was brought a foot deeper in the water, making
her draft twenty-three feet.

"Commodore Josiah Tatnall relieved Admiral Buchanan in command.
On the 11th of April he took the Virginia down to Hampton
Roads, expecting to have a desperate encounter with the Monitor.
Greatly to our surprise the Monitor refused to fight us. She closely
hugged the shore under the guns of the fort with her steam up. Hoping
to provoke her to come out, the Jamestown was sent in, and captured
several prizes, but the Monitor would not budge. It was proposed
to take the vessel to York river, but it was decided in Richmond
that she should remain near Norfolk for its protection.

"Commodore Tatnall commanded the Virginia for forty-five days,
of which time there were only thirteen days that she was not in dock
or in the hands of the navy yard. Yet he succeeded in impressing on
the enemy that we were ready for active service. It was evident that
the enemy very much overrated our power and efficiency. The South
also had the same exaggerated idea of the vessel.

"On the 8th of May, a squadron, including the Monitor, bombarded
our batteries at Sewell's Point. We immediately left the yard for the
Roads. As we drew near, the Monitor and her consorts ceased bombarding,
and retreated under the guns of the forts keeping out of range
of our guns. Men-of-war from below the forts and vessels expressly
fitted for running us down joined the other vessels between the forts.
It looked as if the fleet was about to make a fierce onslaught on us.
But we were again to be disappointed. The Monitor and the other
vessels did not venture to meet us, although we advanced until projectiles
from the Rip-raps fell more than half a mile beyond us. Our
object, however, was accomplished; we had put an end to the bombardment,
and we returned to our buoy."

Captain Buchanan was promoted to be Admiral in the Confederate
States Navy, and temporarily relieved from command on account of
wound received in the engagement of the Virginia March 8th. On March
25th Commodore Josiah Tatnall was ordered to command of the naval
defenses of Virginia waters, and he assumed command March 29th.
From the 8th to the 29th the Virginia was ably commanded by Lieutenant
Jones, who for this service was promoted captain. (This promotion
was to captain in the Confederate States Navy; the promotion
previously noted when he was sent to Norfolk was in the Virginia
Navy.) The Confederate authorities entertained the belief that the
Virginia would be able to drive the entire fleet of the enemy from

Hampton Roads. Virginians were confident that the blockade of their
shores would be raised by the ironclad. The people of the Northern
coast cities anticipated seeing their harbors laid waste by it. Secretary
Mallory sent Commodore Tatnall a communication on April 1st,
in which he said: "The enclosed note, sent me by friend in Baltimore,
will inform you of some interesting points about the Monitor. This
vessel has achieved a high reputation by her recent combat with the
Virginia; and the enemy, no less than our own people, look forward to
a renewal of it as a matter of course, and with deep interest. I confess
to a very deep interest in your success over her, for I am fully convinced
that the result of such a victory may save millions of dollars
and thousands of lives." The information conveyed by the note
enclosed was certain points in the construction of the Monitor, a
knowledge of which might be serviceable to the Virginia in meeting her
again.

Again on April 4th Secretary Mallory instructed Commodore Tatnall:
"Do not hesitate or wait for orders, but strike when, how and where
your judgment may dictate. Take her [the Virginia] out of the dock
when you may deem best, and this point is left entirely to your discretion."
Commodore Tatnall in his defense before court-martial said.
"Aware that Hampton Roads furnished me no field for important
operations, I early turned my thoughts to passing the forts and striking
unexpectedly at some distant point, say New York, or Port Royal,
or Savannah, and in a letter of the 10th of April to the Secretary, I
conveyed my views." At a meeting of the Federal Cabinet called after
the fight in Hampton Roads, Secretary of War Stanton said: "The
Merrimac [Virginia] will change the whole character of the war; she
will destroy, seriatim, every naval vessel, she will lay all cities on
the seaboard under contribution. I shall immediately recall Burnside,
Port Royal must be abandoned. I will notify the governors and municipal
authorities in the North to take instant measures to protect
their harbors."

But hopes and fears were unfounded. No further victory was to be
won by the Virginia. No victory at sea, for she had not one seagoing
qualification, and could only be used for harbor defense. No victory in
Hampton Roads, for her fighting qualities had been tested, and the
enemy were not minded to meet her again. As Lieutenant Jones testifies,
whenever she came out of the Elizabeth, all Federal boats fled to
shallow water where she could not follow; and the Monitor, while her
officers loudly claimed a victory for March 9th, was kept close under
the guns of Fortress Monroe, and could not be tempted into another
engagement.

The movements of the two opposing armies on the peninsula, in

March and April, 1862, resulted in the change of base of Gen. Joe E.
Johnston's army from the Yorktown lines to the west bank of the
Chickahominy, and from this change resulted the, perhaps, unnecessary
order for the Confederate evacuation of Norfolk. On May 10th the
Confederate land forces fell back from the vicinity of Elizabeth river, the
batteries at Craney Island, Sewell Point and all along the river were
abandoned. General Huger with his troops withdrew from Norfolk,
the mayor of the city negotiated its surrender to General Wool, and
once more the navy yard was given over to the flames. The smaller
vessels of the Confederate fleet had in April withdrawn to James river,
and after Norfolk was abandoned moved up the river to positions
behind the fortifications at Drewry's and Chapin's bluffs. Commodore
Tatnall ordered the Virginia lightened and run up James river to the
protection of Richmond. After the crew had worked five or six hours
lightening the boat, and she was lifted so that she could not be
defended where she lay, the pilots announced their inability to carry
her up the James (where the draft was eighteen feet) beyond Jamestown
Flats, at which point it was reported the enemy held both banks
of the river. Only one course could then be pursued to keep her out of
the enemy's hands. She was put on shore and fired, and her crew
landed as near Craney Island as possible, the only way of retreat open
to them. She burned about an hour, and blew up a little before five
o'clock on the morning of May 11th.

This unlooked for end to the career of the ironclad, whose victories
had been exaggerated, whose defects were then not known, and from
which so much was expected, created great dissatisfaction throughout the
Confederacy. Commodore Tatnall was severely censured for destroying
the Virginia, not only by those ignorant of the facts in the case,
but also by those whose knowledge of the situation should have led
them to endorse his action. He called for a Court of Inquiry, which
reported, in substance, that the Virginia ought not to have been destroyed
at the time and place it was done. As soon as this finding was
made known, the Commodore promptly and very properly called for
a court-martial, which was convened on July 5, 1862, composed of
the following officers: Admiral Franklin Buchanan; Captains Lawrence
Rousseau, Sidney S. Lee, George N. Hollins; Commanders Robert G.
Robb, Murray Nelson, Eben Farrand, A. B. Fairfax, M. F. Maury,
George Minor; Lieutenants W. L. Maury, Robert B. Pegram; Judge
Advocate Robert Ould. By this court Commodore Tatnall was honorably
acquitted, the court finding:

"That after the evacuation of Norfolk, Westover on James river
became the most suitable place for her [the Virginia] to occupy; that
while in the act of lightening her for the purpose of taking her up to

that point, the pilots for the first time declared their inability to take
her up. That when lightened she was made vulnerable to the attacks
of the enemy. The only alternative, in the opinion of the court, was
to abandon and burn the ship then and there, which, in the judgment
of the court, was deliberately and wisely done."

The Monitor, of which quite as much was expected in the North as in
the South was expected of the Virginia, had a career almost as brief
and much less serviceable. After some slight service in the James river
in the summer of 1862, she was taken to Washington for repairs in
September, returning to Hampton Roads two months later. On
December 29th, she set out for Beaufort, North Carolina, in tow of the
Rhode Island, and two days later she sunk in a heavy gale off the
North Carolina coast.