New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-05-13
The Monitors Before CharIeston.

y
MY DrAR-: Our friend Col. - showed me one
paragraph Of your letter TO him in which you refer
red apparently with surprise to the fact, that the
attack on Charleston by the iron-clads should have
been discontinued " when 30 few Casualties had oc-
Cured" This IL 90 obvious q reflection on the first
hssty view of the affair, and yet 80 radically unjust
when we look calmly at the facts, that in Col. IS
absence The has gone to st. Augustine and Fernan-
dinal will venture to occupy your time a few mo-
ments on the subject:
10 ordinary warfare the amount Of Casualties will
give fair ea Of the strength Of the resistance and
the power and persistency OF the attack. With
wooden vessels, your remark-and know II 10 be
an all bot universal one-would apply with truth;
and l. il because have all become ~ accustomed
to measure battles on land by the amount Of
blood ssied, that we arc apt ~ err IN Judging an
utterly uncommon and unprecedented battle by the
ordinary or common standard. Let me now submit
some points;
l. II 10 TO be borne in mind that this leo far az the
navy was ooncerned) was purely an experiment as
TO the possibility Of taking city by machinery
The Monitors might be called blood-saying machines
with this penalty attached to them: that whenever
the loss Of life should begin it would involve the
inevitable destruction OF every man on board. The
number of men in the whole ron-clsd squadron was
lees than a regiment; and these few hundred men,
rushing against forty or fifty thousand, were TO
have no other part in the fight than TO supply the
necessary power for working the machines. II
Charleston were 10 fall, II was by machinery; and
the moment the experiment was tested 70 the point
Of proving that the machines were inadequate to
their work, it was wisdom TO withdraw them and
would have been dangerous foolhardiness to have
held them longer exposed.
2. The experiment wac fully prosecuted up 70 this
point with q magnifcence Of gallantry before
which, as a spectator, bowed in reverence. The
machines were untred, and the conflict the first
practical test We have ever had Of the power Of the
new kinds Of ordnance and ordnance material en-
ployed against them. l refer TO the Blakey and
Whitworth English guns firing steel bolts and steel
pointed shot. The warfare was almost as new to
the Admiral and bis Captains as it would have been
TO you or mysef-new kinds Of projecties raining
on him from above vast torpedoes known to be I'M
dspssth his keels, and every channel OF entrance
blocked with triple rows Of torpedo-srmed obstruc-
tons.
3. After less than an hours conflict, five out OF the
eight Monitors were dissbled-the Keokuk sinking.
Behind the FORTS calmly waiting their opportunity,
lay three Of the enemys iron.clsds in plain views
vessels not able in fair fight TO live an hour before
one Of our Monitors but held in readiness to cruise
out and capture any Monitor disabled by the artillery
practice of the forts and batteries. This should not
be Lost sight Of.
| 4. With two or three Of our vessels Of this KIND
disabled captured repaired and in the enemys SER
vice. what force would it require to MAINTAIN the
blockade of Charleston Wooden vessels-our gun
boats and steam.sloops would be useless; and our
iron vessels could not live outside Of Charleston bar
in rough weather. Nor, even If they could, unless
we had enough Of them to fire over every inch
Of the mouth of the harbor permanently, could
blockade DO maintained against the fast clipper
steamers built as blockade-runners In English ship
yards In word the enemy, with single Monitor
Of ours, could drive every wooden boat from tho
blockadei aud would, practically, "hsvs raised tno
blockade"
5th. Could we afford 70 have Charleston free
port--ths greatest FREQ port In the world, wpen
viewed a. the only outlet and inlet for the commerce
Of eight millions Of people, with arms and ell other
requisites pouring into it unmolested, and cotton
mourning out Would not such an event Of necessity
Il mean moral and political uscessity-havs CON-
PEELED France, and perhaps other wavering foreign
Powers, to acknowledge the Confedsracy' Are we
in q position to hazard these consequences hgh"y'
6. Bear in mind that the weakness Of the Mon:tor'
turrets was increasing in geometrcal ratio under the
force of each conclusion. Each bolt started eacn
Mate cracked, each sancheop bent by the h5ss oai'