rm of any
consequence to either vessel.

"The Minnesota joined in the conflict, and fired her broadside of
fifty guns into the Merrimac. It seemed to me that every shot
struck, but they all fell harmless from the invulnerable sides of
the ironclad. The battle was waged with terrific rapidity of
action. Now the two craft seemed joined together, now the Monitor
would run around the Merrimac, as if trying to find a weak spot.
The sound of the cannonading was deafening, even at my distance.

"The Merrimac presently withdrew. The crowd on the shore trembled
and asked what the matter could be. Was she defeated? There was
only a moment's suspense, but it seemed like an hour. The answer
came soon. Suddenly swinging around, the Merrimac paused for a
minute, then steamed with full head against the Monitor. The little
'cheese-box' staggered from the blow, but soon righted and
continued firing, practically unharmed. When the Cumberland was
rammed, the iron shoe that covered the Merrimac's ram was torn off,
and so she had nothing but the oak foundation to oppose to the iron
sides of the Monitor.

"This was about the last incident of the fight. Shortly afterward
the two vessels drew apart, the smoke lifted, and neither of them
showed any disposition to renew the battle. The Monitor headed
toward Fortress Monroe, and the Merrimac steamed toward the
Minneapolis, as if to continue the fight, but passed on without
attacking her, and rested under the guns of the Confederate battery
at Craney Island.

"Norfolk was evacuated by the Confederates two months later, the
navy yard was burned, and many ships were destroyed. An effort was
made to get the Merrimac to Richmond, but it was impossible to take
her over the bar at the entrance of the James River. Just at
daylight, Sunday morning, May 11th, we in Norfolk were awakened by
an explosion whose meaning all quickly guessed. The Merrimac had
been blown up by her commander, Josiah Tattnall, and so effectively
destroyed that no fragments sufficient to reveal the details of her
construction were ever recovered.

"The Monitor was lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras at midnight of
December 31 of the same year (1862). The two ironclads, which in a
single day had changed the face of war and revolutionized the
navies of the world, thus found early g