hich once more put a
new face upon the proposed campaign against Richmond. During the
forenoon of the next day, March 9, a despatch was received from Fortress
Monroe, reporting the appearance of the rebel ironclad _Merrimac_, and
the havoc she had wrought the previous afternoon--the _Cumberland_ sunk,
the _Congress_ surrendered and burned, the _Minnesota_ aground and about
to be attacked. There was a quick gathering of officials at the
Executive Mansion--Secretaries Stanton, Seward, Welles, Generals
McClellan, Meigs, Totten, Commodore Smith, and Captain Dahlgren--and a
scene of excitement ensued, unequaled by any other in the President's
office during the war. Stanton walked up and down like a caged lion, and
eager discussion animated cabinet and military officers. Two other
despatches soon came, one from the captain of a vessel at Baltimore, who
had left Fortress Monroe on the evening of the eighth, and a copy of a
telegram to the "New York Tribune," giving more details.

President Lincoln was the coolest man in the whole gathering, carefully
analyzing the language of the telegrams, to give their somewhat confused
statements intelligible coherence. Wild suggestions flew from speaker to
speaker about possible danger to be apprehended from the new marine
terror--whether she might not be able to go to New York or Philadelphia
and levy tribute, to Baltimore or Annapolis to destroy the transports
gathered for McClellan's movement, or even to come up the Potomac and
burn Washington; and all sorts of prudential measures and safeguards
were proposed.

In the afternoon, however, apprehension was greatly quieted. That very
day a cable was laid across the bay, giving direct telegraphic
communication with Fortress Monroe, and Captain Fox, who happened to be
on the spot, concisely reported at about 4 P.M. the dramatic sequel--the
timely arrival of the _Monitor_, the interesting naval battle between
the two ironclads, and that at noon the _Merrimac_ had withdrawn from
the conflict, and with her three small consorts steamed back into
Elizabeth River.

Scarcely had the excitement over the _Monitor_ and _Merrimac_ news begun
to subside, when, on the same afternoon, a new surprise burst upon the
military authorities in a report that the whole Confederate army had
evacuated its stronghold at Manassas and the batteries on the Potomac,
and had retired southward to a new line behind the Rappahannock. General
McClellan hastened across the