St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1897-01-08

dispelled by glow OF light, which shot
up into the heavens in the direction Of
Newport News. Looking in that direo-
tion, we saw the Congress in flames, and
the IRE continued to grow III brilliancy
and in beauty until about IL p. M,
when her magazine exploded with O
terrific report, and all was again mid
night darkness.
"On Sunday morning conveyed
Commodore Buchanan, Lieutenant Mi.
nor and one Of our men who had been
seriously wounded to Sewell's Point.
Upon returning to the ship l pulled
around her to see how she had weather.
ed the storm of shot and shell through
which she had passed OH the previous
day. Her ram had been twisted off, two
Of her guns had been fractured and rem
dered inefficient, the iron ratings and
stanchlons which surrounded the Eurri-
cane deck were carried away, her
smOKestack was riddled like a sieve,
and counted over 100 marks upon her
iron plating, showing where she had
been struck with cannon shot. | learned
with regret that it was Lieutenant
Jones intention to proceed again to
Hampton Roads and renew the battle.
l regretted it, first, because we had lost
our ram, which / considered our most
effective weapon; second, because two
of our guns had been broken Off and so
shortened that we could not discharge
them without setting the timbers around
the gunports on fire; third, because our
officers and men had been arduously en-
gagged, without intermission even for
food, from a. In. to IL m. on the day
BEFORE and we were wearied and need
ed rest and last, but not least, because
1t was the Sabbath day, which l had al
ways been taught to revere.
Sin a few minutes the anchor was
up, and we were again in motion. Dis
covering that the United States steamer
Minnesota was seriously crippled and
aground, Jones ordered the pilot to take
us as as near that vessel as possible in
order that we might give her the coup
de grace, but he, not being of the stuff
from which heroes are made and pre-
ferring to receive her formidable broad
side from afar, purposely ran us aground
some two miles off.
"While we were thus stuck in the
mud the Monitor, commanded by my
old friend and messmate, John l.. Wor--
den, made her appearance and opened
fire upon us. Worden fought his vessel
bravely and well, and, soon discovering
that he could make no impression upon
our 'obdurate and insensible corpus in
any other way, he adopted the old Ro-
man method of using the battering ram,
and, in hopes of thereby effecting a
breach, discharged shot after shot at the
same spot, which was first about amid.
ships. Had he known perhaps that 1
was posted at that particular spot a
passing remembrance of Aud Lang
Syne' and the pleasant days we had
passed together on the old Warren in
the Pacific and the Cumberland in the
Mediterranean might have induced hm
to select some other locality upon which
to try his experiment. As it was, how.
ever, he knocked so long and so hard at
my door that one of the men assisting
me, whose body touched the side of the
vessel, was Frustrated by the conclusion
and nearly frightened out of his life,
while one of the timbers was driven in
obout a nuortar Of or, inch
How long we continued to bang
away at each other l cannot now re-
member, but after long time our chief
engineer, Ramsey, by straining his en-
gines to their uttermost tension, sue
oeeded i'll releasing us from the tena.
cious mud, when, springing like a man
from horrible nightmare, we made q
rush at the Monitor to sink her. For
tunqtely, however, for that vessel, the
Cumberland had been the Delilah of our
Samson and had shorn the Virginia, or
Merrimac, of her front lock, thereby de
privng US of our principal strength.
Our iron Prov being gone, we struck
the Monitor with blunt ends of our
wooden beams to which it had been at.
tached instead of its penetrating edge,
and that was all that saved her from
destruction. Immediately after recover
ing from the collision the Monitor
moved off toward Fortress Monroe, and
never did she come within long range
of us again.
"Seeing the Monitor retire from the
field without firing another gun. we
supposed that the machinery which
worked her turret had been damaged,
and that this was the cause of her re-
treat, but we afterward heard that it
was due to most painful and serious
injury to Captain Wordens eyes occa-