an citizenship has been respected everywhere.

CHAPTER XXII

THE "MONITOR" AND THE "MERRIMAC"

A FIGHT WHICH CHANGED ALL NAVAL WARFARE.

THE story I am now going to tell you takes us forward to the beginning
of the great Civil War, that terrible conflict which went on during four
long years between the people of the North and the South. Most of this
war was on land, but there were some mighty battles at sea, and my story
is of one of the greatest of these.

You should know that up to 1860 all ocean battles were fought by ships
with wooden sides, through which a ball from a great gun would often cut
as easily as a knife through a piece of cheese. Some vessels had been
built with iron overcoats, but none of these had met in war. It was not
till March, 1862, that the first battle between ships with iron sides
took place.

The _Constitution_, you may remember, was called the _Old Ironsides_,
but that was only a nickname, for she had wooden sides, and the first
real Ironsides were the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_.

Down in Virginia there is a great body of salt water known as Hampton
Roads. The James River runs into it, and so does the Elizabeth River, a
small stream which flows past the old City of Norfolk.

When the Civil War opened there was at Norfolk a fine United States navy
yard, with ships and guns and docks that had cost a great deal of money.
But soon after the war began the United States officers in charge there
ran away in a fright, having first set on fire everything that would
burn. Among the ships there was the old frigate _Merrimac_, which was
being repaired. This was set on fire, and blazed away brightly until it
sank to the bottom and the salt water put out the blaze. That was a very
bad business, for there was enough left of the old _Merrimac_ to make a
great deal of trouble for the United States.

What did the Confederates do but lift the _Merrimac_ out of the mud, and
put her in the dry dock, and cut away the burnt part, and build over
her a sloping roof of timbers two feet thick, until she looked something
like Noah's ark. Then this was covered with iron plates four inches
thick. In that way the first Confederate iron-clad ship was made.

The people at Washington knew all about this ship and were very much
alarmed. No one could tell what dreadful damage it might do if it got
out to sea, and came up Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River to the
national capital. It might be much worse th