ommander of the _Congress_ had been killed,
and her decks looked like a slaughter-house. She was utterly unable to
make any impression on her foe, and finally she took fire and blew up.
The _Minnesota_ was the third victim marked for destruction, and the
_Merrimac_ began the attack upon her at once; but it was getting very
late, and as the water was shoal and she could not get close, the ram
finally drew back to her anchorage to wait until next day before
renewing and completing her work of destruction.

All that night there was the wildest exultation among the Confederates,
while the gloom and panic of the Union men cannot be described. It was
evident that the United States ships-of-war were as helpless as
cockle-shells against their iron-clad foe, and there was no question
that she could destroy the whole fleet with ease and with absolute
impunity. This meant not only the breaking of the blockade, but the
sweeping away at one blow of the North's naval supremacy, which was
indispensable to the success of the war for the Union. It is small
wonder that during that night the wisest and bravest should have almost
despaired of the Union.

But in the hour of the nation's greatest need a champion suddenly
appeared, in time to play the last scene in this great drama of sea
warfare. The North, too, had been trying its hand at building ironclads.
The most successful of them was the little _Monitor_, a flat-decked,
low, turreted ironclad, armed with a couple of heavy guns. She was the
first experiment of her kind, and her absolutely flat surface, nearly
level with the water, her revolving turret, and her utter unlikeness to
any pre-existing naval type, had made her an object of mirth among most
practical seamen; but her inventor, Ericsson, never despaired of her.
Under the command of a gallant naval officer, Captain Worden, she was
sent South from New York, and though she almost foundered in a gale she
managed to weather it, and reached the scene of the battle at Hampton
Roads at the hour of the nation's sorest need.

Early the following morning the _Merrimac_ again steamed forth to take
up the work she had so well begun, and to destroy the Union fleet. She
steered straight for the _Minnesota_; but when she was almost there, to
her astonishment a strange-looking little craft advanced from the side
of the big wooden frigate and boldly barred the _Merrimac_'s path. For a
moment the Confederates could hardly believe their eyes. Th