The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-07-11

airy. Respectfully forwarded. .John cay =,
Hughes, Colonel Commanding 18th tn ~
nessee Regiment. 4eH'
Headquarters. Johnston's Brigade Fai,
field, June IS, 1863. Respectfully forpa.
ded. B. r. Johnson, Brigadier Gan M@SI
Commanding.
Headquarters, Stewards Division. INN,
10, 1863. Respectfully forwarded. Ala
II. Stewart, Major General AGA
Headquarters, Hardees Corps. june N
1868. Respectfully forwarded. W. r
Hardee, Lieutenant General
Headquarters, Army of Tennessee. juno
%, 1863. Major General Wheeler is uread
TO take proper and energetic measures to
correct this growing evil. By w. w. Mack.
all Chief of Staff.
respectfully referred to General Morgan
whose attention is called to Endorsement Of
General Mackall. By order of Major Gen.
eral Wheeler.
OUR IRoN-CLADs.-In the aecounts
which we published yesterday of the iron.
clad battle between the monitor Weehawt.
en- and the rebel iron-clad Atlanta, we have
the first true test of the wisdom of Errics.
sons system of building vessels of war
! When the Monitor fought the Merrimac in
Hampton Roads, and permitted her to re-
turn to Norfolk without being either totally
destroyed or captured, Ericsson claimed
that the full powers of his vessel had not
been tested, because the guns which had
been furnished him by the Navy Depart
ment, were not so powerful as he had ask.
ed for, or as the vessel was capable of
| carrying. That original iron-clad battle,
therefore, only proved the impregnabili.
ty OF the Monitor, when opposed to the
most powerful ordnance then afioat.
In building the new vessels, the NAVY
| Department increased the size of the guns
from eteue'a to fifteen inches caliber carry
ing up the weight of the shot from one hun
bred and seventy to fou1 hundred pounds
These enormous guns weigh twenty tuns
each, and it has been matter of grave
doubt with most of our naval officers
whether lighter gun, which could be fired
more rapidly, would not have been more
serviceable. Indeed, in the attacks upon
| Fort McAllister, in the Ogeeche River, and
upon Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor,
1t was universal complaint against the
monitors that they could not Keep up a
sufficiently continuous fire, and that they
must have either more guns or lighter ones
which could be fired oftener.
Ericsson's reply to this has been, that ne
ala not design the vessels to fight forts but
ships: and that his idea of a naval vessel
which should insure success against any
other vessel whatsoever, was to have a gun
OF sufficient power to make very large
hole through the armature of the strongest
iron clad, placed on board q vessel which
exposed to the enemy the least possible
target, and this made so thick and strong
that no ordnance could penetrate it. In
such vessel rapidity of fire was not so es-
sentlal against ships; but, until now, there
mas been no opportunity to prove the cor
rectness of this theory; and the fact that
seven OF these vessels, supported by the
lronsides and the Keokuk, retired from
before Sumter after one brief trial certain
Iy destroyed the charm which hung around
IL
great fact that one OF them had lain under
the fire of fort while she destroyed of
the enemy's vessels, three-quarters of
mile away, across the neck of land forming
bend in the river, without paving the
slightest attention to the fort, as the Mon
tauk did the Nashville, under the fire of
Fort McAllister-passed by almost I'M
needed, although such thing was never
before known.
1t would appear that the failure of the
monitors to take Charleston had material
ly lowered them in the estimation of the
rebels, for we see in the accounts of the
late battle, that the officers of the Atlanta
were confident of their ability to capture
both the Weehawken and the Nahaut.-
Nor were the people of Savannah whit
behind them in this feeling, for we are
told that two steamers loaded with ladies
and gentlemen, had come down the river,
as on an excursion, to see the discontinue
OF the boosted Yankee monitors. and to tow
them up toSavannah as soon as they should
surrender. How. quickly was all this
changed by few heavy blows of that ter
rlbIe four hundred Founder!
None of the famous Old battles between
wooden ships We're ever half so quickly
fought. The description of the battle
itself, by Captain Rodgers in this official
report, is equally short. He says:
'At ST O'Clock, being distant from him
hnJft ride
firing. AT 81 o'clock, the enemy hauled
down his colors and hoisted the white flag.
we having fired five shots:''
This vessel was plated with five inches
thickness OF iron, placed at an angle Of
thirty degrees with the horizon. Yet Cap
tain, Rodgers tells us that the first shot
struck this side armor, and broke in the
armor and the wood backing, strewing the
deck with splinters, prostrating about forty
men by the conclusion, and woUnding
more by the broken pieces of armor and
spIlnters. Yet this shot did not strike at
right angles to the keel, but at an angle of
fifty degrees whit. What resistance then
could the four-and-a-half-inch vertical
side-armor of England's boosted Warrior
offer to such shot, striking it at right an
giles? 1t would certainly pass directly
through both sides, and if fired at any of
the many vital points contained within
this flmsey armature, one shot would be
entlrely sufhclent for placing her hOrS du
combat.
1t Is the actual demonstration of this i'm
portant fact which makes us feel grateful
TO Captain Rodgers for the gallant service
he has rendered the country in the spirited
battle in Warsaw Sound.
we must know that we can defend our
harbors against the most powerful IRON
clad frigates which could by any POSSIBLE
ty be brought against us by any European
naval Powers, in the event ola war with
any of them; and with regard TO the clum-
sly craft which the rebels are constantly
blowing up or surrendering to any thing
which spiritedly attacks them, we have no
longer feeling ofthe slightest concern
The Atlanta was the staunchest one they
had, with a.good English hull, and faithful
English steam machinery whichwould not
blow up, and she lasted just fifteen mint
ties after the monitor vessel opened on her,
We understand that the Government
have built or are building, forty of these
vessels. The assurance is as refreshing as
a cool breeze on a warm day.-New YORK.
Times.
The Nashville Union saws of the drown.