Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

In the early summer of 1861 the Navy Department at Richmond had designed an iron-clad war vessel, which for the long period of eight months was in course of construction at the Gosport navy yard. A plan originated with Lieut. Brooke to convert the hull of the frigate Merrimac, which vessel had been scuttled and sunk by the Federals on their abandonment of Norfolk at the opening of the war, into a shot-proof steam battery, constructed with inclined iron-plated sides and submerged ends. The plates to protect her sides were prepared at the Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond; and their inclination and thickness, and form, were determined by actual experiment. The eaves of the casemates as well as the ends of vessels were submerged, and a ram was added as a weapon of offence.

This novel naval structure carried ten guns, eight broadside, one at the bow, and one at the stern. The other vessels of the Confederate squadron in the James river, under command of Captain Buchanan, were the Patrick Henry, six guns; the Jamestown, two guns; the Raleigh, the Beaufort and the Teazer, each of one gun. At the time of which we write a considerable naval force of the enemy had been collected in Hampton Roads, off Fortress Monroe. The fleet consisted of the Cumberland, of 24 guns; the Congress, 50 guns; the St. Lawrence, 50 guns; the steam-frigates Minnesota and Roanoke, 40 guns; and was under the command of Captain Marston, of the Roanoke. The Cumberland and the Congress lay off Newport News, about three hundred yards from the shore; the Congress about two hundred yards south of the Cumberland; whilst the remainder of the fleet were anchored off Fortress Monroe, about nine miles east of Newport News. With the force of twenty guns, Capt. Buchanan proposed to engage this formidable fleet, besides the enemy's batteries at Newport News, and several small steamers, armed with heavy rifled guns. Everything had to be trusted to the experiment of the Virginia. It was an enterprise sufficient to try the nerves of any commander to make the first trial of the offensive and defensive powers of a single vessel in the presence of an enemy with such an armament, when the slightest flaw would have proved fatal.

About eleven o'clock in the morning of the 8th of March the Virginia cast loose from her moorings at the Gosport navy yard, and made her way down Hampton Roads. On her approach being signalled, orders were immediately issued by Capt. Marston of the Roanoke for his own vessel, the Minnesota, and the St. Lawrence to get under weigh. The Cumberland and Congress had previously perceived “the great Secesh curiosity,” and had beat to quarters, and prepared for action. The Virginia came slowly on, not making more than five knots per hour, and accompanied by the Raleigh and Beaufort. The pivot guns of the Cumberland opened on her