Chapter 12: fight between the Merrimac and Monitor, March 8, 1862.
- Appearance of the Merrimac. -- destruction of the Congress and Cumberland. -- arrival of the Monitor. -- the fight.
While the Federal arms were so successful in the sounds of North Carolina, a great disaster overtook the Federal cause in Hampton Roads, filling the country with dismay, and even bringing many of the Union people to doubt the success of the cause for which they had labored so hard. When the Union naval officers set fire to the buildings of the Norfolk Navy Yard, they supposed they had taken such precautions that everything of value would be destroyed, but as soon as the Federals had departed a detachment of Virginia volunteers rushed in to extinguish the flames. The Merrimac had been sunk, but the lower part of her hull and her engines and boilers were substantially uninjured. Lieutenant John M. Brooke, one of the most accomplished officers among those who had left our Navy and joined the Confederate cause, visited the scene of the conflagration, and it at once occurred to him that the Merrimac could be rebuilt as an iron-clad; and his plans being accepted by Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Confederate Navy, orders were issued to have them carried out at once. The vessel was raised and cut down to the old berth deck, both ends for a distance of seventy feet were covered over, and when the ship was in fighting trim were just awash. On the midship section, a length of one hundred and seventy feet was built over, the sides being at an angle of fifty-five degrees, a roof of oak and pitch pine extending from the water line to a height of seven feet above the gun-deck. Both ends of this structure were rounded, so that the pivot guns could be used as bow and stern chasers, or quartering; over the gun-deck was a light grating, making a promenade twenty feet wide. The wood backing was covered with iron plates rolled at the Tredagar Works in Richmond. These plates were eight inches wide and two inches thick. The first covering was put on horizontally, the second up and down, making a total thickness of iron of four inches, strongly bolted to the woodwork and clinched inside. The ram, or prow,was of cast-iron, projecting four feet, and, as was found subsequently, was badly secured. The rudder and propeller were entirely unprotected. The pilot-house was forward of the smoke-stack and covered with the same thickness of iron as the sides. The motive power was the same as had been in the ship before; both boilers and engines were very defective, and the vessel was not capable of making more than five knots an hour. Another able officer, formerly of the United States Navy, Lieut. Catesby ap R. Jones, had charge of the preparation of the Merrimac's armament, and to his skill was due the efficiency of her battery. It consisted of two seven-inch rifles, re-enforced with three-inch steel bands shrunk around the breech; these were the bow and stern pivots. There were in broadside two six-inch rifles similar to the above, and six nine-inch smooth-bores — in all ten heavy guns. When this formidable vessel was completed the name of the Virginia was bestowed upon her, and she was placed under the command of Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, who had resigned from the United States Navy, where he had reaped the highest
