The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-07-17
ANUfPORTANT SCRAP Of
HISTORY.


Commodore FoxhaH Parker read a
paper recently before the L. :. Naval
Institute which rather upset all Prev
ously conceived notions Of the famous
contest between the Monitor and Aerrl-
mac. The action has heretofore been
surrounded By historians with halo OF
glory. and in the patriotic fervor which
seized upon the narrator some very mi
nortant incidents Of the fight were for
gotten OF ignored. In the first place,
Commodore Parker informs VI that
the Monitor had twice almost swamped
at sea before reaching Hampton Road,
and he ascribes her escape from wreck
to the providence Of God.
Again. when the vessels had come 20
close quarters. the Commodore gives Il
peice Of information not previously
vouehsafed by historians Of this event,
in the following language:
For two long hours the battle ragged
In this manner, the vessels almost touch
ing each other, when the Monitor, find
ing her supply Of shot in the turret eN.
hausted. hauled out of tie action and
ran into shOal water, where she remaine'i
while it was being replenished.
This was tedious operation, a. each
shot weighed one hundred and sixty
| eight pouuds. and had 10 be hoIsted
from below by hand, and occupied
! twenty minutes. during all which time
| the rebels both ahoat and ashore. be
lieving the victory theirs, were Loudly
and wildly cheering.
How convenient to have sIioal water
at hand 10 run into while the turret was
being repleIiished with shot at the rate
of one in twenty minutes. How fOrtu-
nate, too, that the officers Of the MerTi-
mac thought that the Monitor was
wbippe,i, and therefore failed TO inn
prove the time the latter vessel was there
employed, by finishing up the Minnesota
| As she had done the Cumberland the day
before. Indeed. the Commodore in
forms us. that 1.-THE Merrimac had sent
a shell into the Minnesota rakiHg fore
and aft. and setting her on fire before
the Monitor had got her ''slIOt ia heI
lockers" and was prepared to Interfere
in behalf Of her weakened sister. Again,
| when the shot struck the pilot-hOuse
which knocked down Lieut.. Worden,
| that officer commanded the vessel to be
iran into shOal water" again, which
shows that, if her first engagement ma!
he taken as a criterion, shOal water is q
first requisite for successfully fighting
the Monitor. The Cincinnati GGzett,
commenting upon the Commodore
statements, sums up the whole matter
| as follows:
The hastily altered Merrimac, protect
ed with such materials as the rebels
without any shops for making arInor
had at hand, proved herself the superio
engine of war in every respect. She lIaC
done a work Of destruction the day be
fore which the Monitor could not do
! She forced the Monitor to retire twice
The first time nothing but shoal waite
convenient saved her; for she was almOs
disarmed. She had badly hurt the Mon
itor in a vital part, and had disabled he
| commander, while herself unhurt. Sh
had speed, which the Monitor had not
and was seaworthy. She had an arma
ment of several guns, and had smal
arms for searching every crevice or hole
while the Monitor had but one unwieldy
slow-working gun. And it is probabl
that the situation, which confined tn
deep draft Virginia TO the main channel
was what saved the Monitor from bein
run down and sunk. Yet because tn
Virginia retired, unhurt, and our sid
shouted over this escape as a victory
we had a monitor mania, and spent
sum which should have given us I; first
class mailed navy, in monitors, whicl
did nothing in the war, save to sink wit
their crews, and which are good fo
nothing now but scrap iron.
We set to work to build floating bat
teries upon a single idea, to be able {
lie still and be pounded, with the el
pectation that they could batter dow
forts. To that we sacrificed sea-goin
qualities, movement, safety and arIna
ment, and yet we did not get invulnera
bility. Nearly all the monitors tina
attacked Fort Sumter came off disable,
by shot. while she was unhurt. For thi
we built iron coffins for our seameI
whose only effective work in the wa
was to sink with two full crews and mos
of another, and which never hurt til
hair of an enemy's head.