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The Virginia's great fight on water.
From the Times-dispatch, December 23, 1906, and January 9, 1907.
Her last challenge and why she was destroyed.
Extracts from the account prepared and published by
Mr. Joseph G. Fiveash, of
Norfolk, Va., of the career of the Confederate gunboat
Virginia, or
Merrimac, the first iron-clad warship the world has ever known.
The operations of
General Burnside in
North Carolina, in the rear of
Norfolk, and the transfer of
General McClellan's army from the neighborhood of
Washington to the
Virginia Peninsula, between the
York and
James rivers, in the spring of 1862, caused the
Confederate authorities to determine to evacuate
Norfolk and vicinity to prevent the capture of the 15,000 troops in that department.
As early as March 26th the commandant of the navy-yard was confidentially informed of the intended action, and ordered to quietly prepare to send valuable machinery to the interior of
North Carolina.
The peremptory order of
General Joseph E. Johnston for the abandonment of the navy-yard was communicated to
Capt. S. S. Lee by
Secretary Mallory, in a letter dated
Richmond, May 3, 1862.
The work of evacuation was expected to be accomplished in two weeks. The citizens at first would not believe the reports of the intended abandonment of the department, but they were soon convinced of their truth.
The work had been progressing several days when, on May 8th, an incident occurred that hastened matters and brought about results that were far-reaching in their importance.
Captain James Byers, of the tug
J. B. White, had been instructed to proceed to
Sewell's Point early on the morning of the 8th, and tow to
Norfolk a barge containing the most valuable gun at that place, an 1-inch Columbiad.
He certainly made an early start, as the records show that he reached
Old Point before eight o'clock. By this desertion
General Wool learned that
Norfolk was being evacuated, and shortly after 12 o'clock the same day a
