Lieutenant Worden, United States Navy, was promoted to the rank of captain and given command. He formed a crew of volunteers for what was considered a novel and exceptionally dangerous service. Officers and men numbered fifty-eight in all.
On the morning of Thursday, 6 March (two days before the "Merrimac's" attack on the "Cumberland"), the "Monitor" left New York in tow of the tug "Seth Low," bound for Hampton Roads. The two days' voyage southwards along the coast was an anxious and trying time, and though the weather was not really bad, the "Monitor" narrowly escaped foundering at sea.
At 4 p.m. on the Saturday she was off Cape Henry, and the sound of a far-off cannonade was heard in the direction of Hampton Roads. The officers rightly guessed that the "Merrimac" was in action. It was after dark that the turret-ship steamed up the still water of the landlocked bay, amid the red glare from the burning "Congress." She anchored beside the United States warship "Roanoke." On board the fleet which eagerly watched her arrival there were general disappointment and depression at seeing how small she was.
Worden shifted his anchorage in the night, and taking advantage of the "Monitor's" light draught steamed up the Roads, and anchored his ship in the shallow water to landward of the stranded "Minnesota."
There was not much sleep on board the "Monitor" that night, tired as the men were. At 2 a.m. the "Congress" blew up in a series of explosions. After that the men tried to settle down to rest, but before dawn all hands were roused to prepare for the coming fight. A little after 7 a.m. the "Merrimac" was seen steaming slowly across the bay, escorted by her flotilla of gunboats. She was coming to complete the destruction of the United States squadron, and had marked down the "Minnesota" as her first victim, in blissful ignorance of the arrival of the "Monitor." Worden realized that if he allowed the fight to take place near the stranded ship, the "Merrimac" might engage him with one of her broadsides, and use the other to destroy the "Minnesota." He therefore steamed boldly out into the open water, challenging the Confederate ram to a duel. As he approached the wooden gunboats prudently turned back and ran under the shelter of the Confederate batteries on the south shore, leaving the "Merrimac" to meet the "Monitor" in single combat.
So that Sunday morning, 9 March, 1862, saw the first battle between ironclad ships, with North and South, soldiers, sailors, and civilians anxiously watching the combat from the ships in the Roads and the batteries on either shore.
Worden was in the pilot-house with a quartermaster at the wheel, and a local pilot to assist him. His first lieutenant, Dana Greene, commanded the two 11-inch guns in the turret. The "Merrimac" was the first to open fire. Worden waited to reply till she was at close quarters, then stopped his engines, let his ship drift, and sent the order by speaking-tube to the turret, "Commence firing!" The "Monitor's" turret swung round, and her two guns roared out, enveloping both ships in a fog of powder smoke as the huge cannon-balls crashed on the sloping armour of the "Merrimac." They did not penetrate it, but the theory of the Northern artillerists was that the hammering of heavy round shot on an enemy's armour would start the plates, shear bolt and rivet heads, and crush in the wooden backing, and so gradually succeed in making a breach in the armour somewhere. But throughout this fight at close quarters the "Merrimac's" cuirass remained intact.
Cassier's Magazine
the battle of hampton roads. the merrimac and monitor engaged at close quarters