Although the main attack had been made on the Hilton Head fort, the one at the north had received attention at long range from the larger squadron, and the gunboats within the harbor had enfiladed it. It had suffered so much, in fact, that the troops abandoned it as soon as they saw that Hilton Head had surrendered. Vessels that were sent to reconnoitre found the flag down, and the next morning Capt. Daniel Ammen of the Seneca hoisted the American flag over the building that had been used as headquarters there. Of his experience Ammen has written as follows:

“He went into the house without a suspicion of possible injury, and found everything had been removed. The earthworks and magazines were hastily examined, and the encampment under the pine trees half a mile distant was then visited.

“Returning to the vicinity of the earthworks, where our flag had been hoisted an hour before, a dull explosion was heard, a cloud of smoke went up, and when it passed away there was no vestige of the small frame house upon which our flag had been hoisted. A sailor walking near had fallen into the snare by his foot striking a wire fastened to a peg, through which a ‘spur tube’ had exploded a quantity of powder placed under the floor of the house. The sailor was knocked down and stunned for a few minutes.”

The government loss in the fight was eight killed, and six seriously and seventeen slightly wounded. The Confederates lost “eleven killed, forty-eight wounded and four missing.”

Admiral Porter says that “the victory at Port Royal put new life into Union hearts.” It “gave the powers of Europe notice that we could and would win back the forts that had been filched from us.” It “showed conclusively that the time-honored theory that one gun on shore was equal to five on shipboard no longer held good.” And of Dupont he says that “all the qualities of a great commander were possessed in an eminent degree” by him.

The harbor of Port Royal remained under the flag. The adjoining waters were patrolled by government gunboats, and Tybee Island and other approaches to Savannah soon fell into government hands. Later on Port Royal was used as a base for the operations against Charleston, which will be described further on.

CHAPTER IX
THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC

SUPERIOR ACTIVITY OF THE CONFEDERATES IN PREPARING FOR IRONCLAD WARFARE AFLOAT—STORY OF THE BUILDING AND ARMING OF THE MERRIMAC—SHE WAS A FORMIDABLE SHIP IN SPITE OF DEFECTS IN DETAIL, BUT HER DESIGN WAS NOT THE BEST CONCEIVABLE—ORIGIN AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SHIP THAT REVOLUTIONIZED THE NAVIES OF THE WORLD—A WONDROUS TRIAL TRIP—FOR ONE DAY THE MERRIMAC WAS IRRESISTIBLY TRIUMPHANT—TWO FINE SHIPS OF THE OLD STYLE DESTROYED WHILE SHE HERSELF SUFFERED BUT LITTLE—THE MAGNIFICENT FIGHT OF THE CUMBERLAND—A DIFFERENCE IN OPINIONS.

The story of the most famous ship duel known to the history of the world, the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, begins on June 10, 1861, when Lieut. John M. Brooke, C.S.N., formerly of the American navy, was assigned to assist the Confederate Navy Department in designing an ironclad that should be able to gain control of the navigable waters in and about the Chesapeake Bay. Brooke “entered upon this duty at once, and a few days thereafter submitted to the department, as the results of his investigations, rough drawings of a casemated vessel, with submerged ends and inclined iron-plated sides. The ends of the vessel and the eaves of the casemate, according to his plan, were to be submerged two feet; and a light bulwark or false bow was designed to divide the water and prevent it from banking up on the forward part of the shield with the vessel in motion, and also to serve as a tank to regulate the ship’s draft. His design was approved by the department,” and Constructor J. L. Porter was brought up from Norfolk to Richmond to assist in making the working drawings. Porter had already been considering this subject, and brought with him a model of a light-draft, screw-driven scow, that was to support a “casemated battery, with inclined iron-covered sides and ends.” In the opinion of Brooke this would have been, “for ordinary purposes, a good boat for harbor defence,” but a blunt-ended hull was, naturally, not to the liking of a naval man, and he proposed to have the ends of the hull “prolonged and shaped like those of any fast vessel, and submerged two feet under water, so that nothing was to be seen afloat but the shield itself.”

Plans were drawn for such a ship, and, with Chief Engineer W. P. Williamson, Brooke went looking for engines to drive the proposed ironclad, but failed to find any. It was in this emergency that Williamson thought of the hulk of the Merrimac, that had been partly burned and sunk at Norfolk. Her engines were old and in bad order when she arrived at Norfolk before the trouble began, and new ones were to have been provided. Moreover, the fire and the soaking in sea-water had injured them; but Williamson knew that they could be made to work. Both Porter and Brooke “thought the draft too great, but were nevertheless of the opinion that it was the best thing that could be done,” and the order to transform the old frigate into a floating fort was issued. Williamson “thoroughly overhauled her engines, supplied deficiencies, and repaired defects, and improved greatly the motive power of the vessel.” Porter “cut the ship down, submerged her ends, performed all the duties of constructor, and originated all the interior arrangements.” The casemate was built according to the plans of his model.