to Captain Adams commanding
the fleet at Pensacola, who was waiting for orders to reinforce with two
companies of artillery, that post being in danger of capture by the
Confederates. The dispatches intrusted to Lieutenant Worden were orders
for such reinforcements to be made.

It was so delicate and dangerous a duty, since Worden was compelled to
make his way through the South which was aflame with secession
excitement, that he committed the dispatches to memory and then
destroyed them. He applied to General Bragg in command of the
Confederate forces in that neighborhood for permission to make a verbal
communication from the Secretary of War to Captain Adams. Permission was
given, and, going on board, Worden delivered his message like a boy
reciting his piece at school. Captain Adams gave him a written
acknowledgment of the receipt of the dispatches, adding that the orders
of the Government would be carried out.

Having thus cleverly eluded the suspicious watchfulness of the
authorities, Lieutenant Worden started for home, but when near
Montgomery, Ala., then the capital of the Confederacy, he was arrested,
taken from the train and thrown into prison. This was on the order of
General Bragg, who discovered how he had been outwitted, and the prompt
reinforcement prevented the capture of Fort Pickens, for which Bragg had
made every preparation. The post was held by the Unionists throughout
the war and was the only one south of Mason and Dixon's line so held.

Lieutenant Worden was kept a prisoner until the 13th of the following
November, when, his health having broken down, he was exchanged and sent
North. There he remained, slowly regaining his strength until March,
1862, when it fell to his lot to become a leading actor in one of the
most famous naval engagements in all history.

When war had fully begun the Union forces in charge of the Norfolk Navy
Yard saw they were not strong enough to prevent its capture by the
Confederates, who were arming for that purpose. They therefore set fire
to the numerous and valuable shipping there. Among the vessels scuttled
and sunk was the steam frigate _Merrimac_, at that time the finest
vessel in the service. In truth, she went down so quickly that very
little damage was done to her. The Confederates raised her, fastened a
huge iron snout or prow at the front, cut down her deck and encased her
with railroad iron, which sloped at an angle of forty-five degrees, and
was smeared on t