er been drilled, she had never fired
a gun, nor had her engines made a single revolution, while the ship
itself was merely a bold experiment, which had never made a trial trip.
Yet Buchanan, on reaching Hampton Roads, headed straight for the Union
fleet.

There, as soon as the identity of the stranger was discovered, hurried
preparations for battle were made. Decks were cleared, magazines opened,
and guns loaded, and as soon as the Merrimac was in range, the Union
ships and shore batteries opened upon her, but such projectiles as
struck her, glanced harmlessly from her iron mail. Not until she was
quite near the Cumberland did the Merrimac return the fire. Then she
opened her bow-port and sent a seven-inch shell through the Cumberland's
quarter. The Cumberland answered with a broadside which would have blown
any wooden vessel out of the water, but which affected the Merrimac not
at all. Buchanan had determined to test the power of his ram, and
keeping on at full speed, crashed into the Cumberland's side. Then he
backed out, leaving a yawning chasm, through which the water poured into
the doomed ship. She settled rapidly and sank with a roar, her crew
firing her guns to the last moment.

The Merrimac then turned her attention to the Congress, with such deadly
effect that that vessel was forced to surrender after an hour's
fighting, in which she was repeatedly hulled and set on fire. Most of
her crew escaped to the shore, and the Confederates completed her
destruction by firing hot shot into her. Evening was at hand by this
time, and the Merrimac withdrew, intending to destroy the other ships in
the harbor next morning.

So ended the most disastrous day in the history of the United States
navy. Two ships were lost, and over three hundred men killed or wounded.
On the Merrimac, two had been killed and eight wounded, but the vessel
herself, though she had been the target for more than a hundred heavy
guns, was practically uninjured and as dangerous as ever.

Among the wounded was Captain Buchanan, who was forced to relinquish the
command of the Merrimac. For his gallantry, he was thanked by the
Confederate Congress, and promoted to full admiral and senior officer of
the Confederate navy. As soon as he recovered from his wound, he was
placed in charge of the naval defenses of Mobile, Alabama, and there
superintended the construction of the ram Tennessee, which he commanded
during the action with Farragut two years later.