Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 1.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

Everybody feels that the few minutes during which the ironclad vessel will be exposed at short range to the balls of the Cumberland's guns of twenty-four centimetres must decide one of the most important questions of the war; if these guns do not succeed in penetrating the armor of the Virginia at such a distance, she will secure the mastery of the James River and the Chesapeake, and wooden vessels will be definitively condemned. By some unaccountable neglect, the Cumberland, it is true, was only supplied with shells, being without a single solid ball in her magazines; but the weight of the former was already such that the trial could be considered as sufficient. It was indeed decisive; the large round projectiles of the Cumberland rebounded from the inclined sides of the Virginia ‘like india rubber balls,’ as the official reports said. Thousands of spectators witnessed this strange and unequal duel between the graceful but powerless champion of sailing-vessels, and the mastless monster whose iron scales alone were visible above the surface of the water — a combat resembling a conflict between a swan and an alligator. On the part of the Confederates, the garrison of Norfolk, the inhabitants of the city and the suburbs, as soon as they saw the Virginia in motion, rushed in crowds to the beach, whence they could see the Federal fleet in the distance, and anxiously waited for the issue of the struggle. On the other side, the news of the appearance of the Virginia was quickly spread. While the Roanoke, the St. Lawrence, and the Minnesota were proceeding towards Newport News, and the tugs were hastening to proffer their valuable assistance to the sailing-vessels already engaged in the action, an extraordinary excitement prevailed on land; everybody wanted to see the famous Virginia. At last the troops encamped in the vicinity of Newport News came to range themselves along the shore with some field artillery, in the hope of being able to salute the Confederate vessel with a few shots. The latter, in the mean while, continued to advance slowly and regularly towards the Cumberland, for the condition of her machinery, which was somewhat out of repair, did not allow her to proceed at a faster rate than three knots. But this very slowness rendered her attack