The Monitor and the Merrimack: Cumberland and Confederate
She had been set on fire, and also scuttled, by the officers who had charge of the yard. Her upper work alone, therefore, had suffered. He hull and machinery were comparatively uninjured.
The Confederate government caused her to be raised and turned into an extemporaneous iron-clad. Her hull was cut down, and a stout timber roof built upon it. This was then strongly plated with three layers of iron, each one inch and a quarter thick, the first layer being placed horizontally, the second obliquely, the third perpendicularly. The armature reached two feet below the water-line, and rose ten feet above. The ends were constructed in the same manner. A false bow was added for the purpose of dividing the water, and beyond it projected an iron beak Outwardly she presented the appearance of an iron roof or ark. It was expected that, from her sloping armature, shots striking would glance away. Her armament consisted of eight eleven-inch guns, four on each side, and a one-hundred-pound rifled Armstrong gun at each end.
As the fact of her construction could not be concealed, the Confederate authorities purposely circulated rumors to her disadvantage. It was said that her iron was so heavy that she could hardly float; that her hull had been seriously injured, and that she could not be steered. Of course they could have no certain knowledge of her capabilities as a weapon of war, and, as was the case with many officers of the national navy, perhaps they held her in light esteem.
About mid-day on Saturday, March 8th [1862], she came down the Elizabeth River, under the command of Franklin Buchanan, an officer who had abandoned the national navy. She was attended by two armed steamboats, and was afterwards joined by two others. Passing the sailing-frigate Congress, and receiving from her her fire, she made her way to the sloop-of-war Cumberland, of twenty-four guns and three hundred and seventy-six men. This ship had been placed across the channel to bring her broadside to bear, and, as the Merrimack approached, she received her with a rapid fire. At once one of the problems presented by the Merrimack's construction was solved: the shot of the Cumberland, from thirteen nine- and ten-inch guns, glanced from her armature "like so many peas." Advancing with all the speed she had, and receiving six or eight broadsides while so doing, she struck her antagonist with her iron beak just forward of the main chains, and instantly opened her fire of shells from every gun she could bring to bear. The battle was already decided. Through the hole she had made, large enough for a man to enter, the water poured in. In vain Lieutenant Morris, who commanded the Cumberland, worked the pumps to keep her afloat a few moments more, hoping that a lucky shot might find some weaker place. He only abandoned his guns as one after another the settling of the sinking ship swamped them in the water. The last shot was fired by Matthew Tenney, from a gun on a level with the water. That brave man then attempted to escape through the port-hole, but was borne back by the incoming rush, and went down with the ship. With him went down nearly one hundred dead, sick, wounded, and those who, like him, could not extricate themselves. The Cumberland sank in fifty-four feet of water. The commander of her assailant saw the flag of the unconquered but sunken ship still flying above the surface. He was not a Virginian, but a Marylander by birth, and had served under that flag for thirty-five years.
The sailing-frigate Congress, which had fired at the Merrimack as she passed, and exchanged shots with the armed steamboats, had been run aground by her commander with the assistance of a tug. The Merrimack now came up, and, taking a position about one hundred and fifty yards from her stern, fired shell into her. One shell killed seventeen men at one of the guns. Of the only two guns with which she could reply, one was quickly dismounted, and the muzzle of the other knocked off. The Merrimack ranged slowly backward and forward at less than one hundred yards. In her helpless condition, the Congress took fire in several places, and nearly half her crew were killed or wounded. Among the former was her commander. The flag was therefore hauled down, and a tug came alongside to take possession of her. But, fire being opened on the tug by some soldiers on shore, the Merrimack recommenced shelling, doing the same again later in the day, after the crew of the Congress had abandoned her. The Congress was set thoroughly on fire. About midnight she blew up. Out of her crew of four hundred and thirty-four men, only two hundred and eighteen survived. In little more than two hours Buchanan had killed or drowned more than three hundred of his old comrades.