“As soon as the Congress surrendered, Commander Buchanan ordered the gun-boats Beaufort and Raleigh to steam alongside, take off her crew, and set fire to the ship. Lieutenant Pendergrast surrendered to Lieutenant Parker, of the Beaufort. Delivering his sword and colors, he was directed by Lieutenant Parker to return to his ship and have the wounded transferred as rapidly as possible. All this time the shore batteries and small-arm men were keeping up an incessant fire on our vessels. Two of the officers of the Raleigh, Lieutenant Taylor and Midshipman Hutter, were killed while assisting the Union wounded out of the Congress. A number of the enemy’s men were killed by the same fire. Finally it became so hot that the gun-boats were obliged to haul off with only thirty prisoners, leaving Lieutenant Pendergrast and most of his crew on board, and they all afterward escaped on shore by swimming or in small boats. While this was going on, the white flag was flying at her mainmast-head. Not being able to take possession of his prize, the commodore ordered hot shot to be used, and in a short time she was in flames fore and aft. While directing this, both himself and his flag-lieutenant, Minor, were severely wounded. The command then devolved upon Lieut. Catesby Jones.
“Our loss in killed and wounded was twenty-one. The armor was hardly damaged, though at one time our ship was the focus on which were directed at least one hundred heavy guns afloat and ashore. But nothing outside escaped. Two guns were disabled by having their muzzles shot off. The ram was left in the side of the Cumberland. One anchor, the smoke-stack, and the steam-pipes were shot away. Railings, stanchions, boat-davits, everything was swept clean. The flag-staff was repeatedly knocked over, and finally a boarding-pike was used. Commodore Buchanan and the other wounded were sent to the Naval Hospital, and after making preparations for the next day’s fight, we slept at our guns, dreaming of other victories in the morning.”
The quotations above are from John Taylor Wood’s story of the action, as printed in the Century Magazine, and Wood was a lieutenant on the Merrimac. There is no dispute as to the facts which he there relates. The points especially worth observing in this account are these: The government batteries on shore continued their fire at the Confederates after the Congress showed the white flag, and this fire killed friend and foe alike. The commanding officer of the Congress “was directed by Lieutenant Parker to return to his ship and have the wounded transferred,” and the Confederate “gunboats were obliged to haul off with only thirty prisoners, leaving Lieutenant Pendergrast” on the Congress. Captain Buchanan’s report of the fight says that the firing on the Confederate gunboats was “vile treachery”; and Scharf’s history says that “very great indignation was felt and expressed by the Confederates,” because the officers of the Congress who had surrendered did not hasten on board the last Confederate gunboat leaving the side of the surrendered ship. It says their remaining on the Congress was “to the discredit of the honor of American sailors.” Admiral Porter says, regarding Buchanan’s firing red-hot shot at the Congress when the white flag was flying and many wounded as well as the unhurt were on board, “this was certainly most inhuman, since the crew of the Congress were not responsible for the act of the troops on shore.”
It was a right fierce battle, and the things done were inevitable under the circumstances—inevitable because of the passions excited by actual conflict. If another battle of the kind be conceivable, then just such doings must follow in its wake.
In after years Secretary of the Navy Welles wrote an account of the effect this first raid of the Merrimac had upon a Cabinet meeting at Washington. Because it showed a lamentable ignorance of the real power of the ship, and because the losses of the day were wholly due to needless delays in preparing to meet the new style of warship, it is worth while quoting one paragraph from his article:
“‘The Merrimac,’ said Stanton, ‘will change the whole character of the war; she will destroy, seriatim, every naval vessel; she will lay all the 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.’ He had no doubt, he said, that the monster was at this moment on her way to Washington; and, looking out of the window, which commanded a view of the Potomac for many miles, ‘Not unlikely, we shall have a shell or cannon-ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this room.’ Mr. Seward, usually buoyant and self-reliant, overwhelmed with the intelligence, listened in responsive sympathy to Stanton, and was greatly depressed, as, indeed, were all the members.”
But that was not all nor the worst of the panic. Assistant Secretary of War John Tucker wrote to Commodore Vanderbilt of New York to ask “for what sum you will contract to destroy the Merrimac ... answer by telegraph, as there is no time to be lost.” Humiliating as such panics are, they must not be forgotten; they must be remembered because they are humiliating, in order that they may be avoided in future.
By the time the Congress was ablaze beyond remedy, five o’clock had come, and the ebb-tide had run so far that the Merrimac could not go to look after the Minnesota, which was grounded some distance off toward Fortress Monroe. Moreover, another day was coming, and to the mind of Lieutenant Jones, who now commanded, he would much better return to Sewell’s Point for the night and take the others on the first of the flood-tide next day. That he would have destroyed them at leisure next day, had no new element come into the conflict, is now unquestioned. But a new and a remarkable element—the Monitor—was at hand.
CHAPTER X
FIRST BATTLE BETWEEN IRONCLADS
A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC BY THE ENGLISH STANDARD OF 1812—IT ASTONISHED THE SPECTATORS TO SEE THE TINY MONITOR’S TEMERITY—AFTER HALF A DAY’S FIRING IT WAS PLAIN THAT THE GUNS COULD NOT PENETRATE THE ARMOR—ATTEMPTS TO RAM THAT FAILED—THE MERRIMAC A-LEAK—CAPTAIN WORDEN OF THE MONITOR DISABLED WHEN THE MERRIMAC’S FIRE WAS CONCENTRATED ON THE PILOT-HOUSE—WHERE THE MONITOR’S GUNNERS FAILED—FAIR STATEMENT OF THE RESULT OF THE BATTLE—WORDEN’S FAITHFUL CREW—THE MERRIMAC DEFIED THE MONITOR IN MAY, BUT WHEN NORFOLK WAS EVACUATED SHE HAD TO BE ABANDONED AND WAS BURNED AT CRANEY ISLAND—LOSS OF THE MONITOR.