The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1897-12-19

next day he would have forced the
| minnesota to surrender before the
| Monitor came TO the ground. and then
run the MCClitor down or forced her into
| deep water. where She could not have
! had the alvantaGc of her light draft.
When we received the New York
papers few days after the battle we
found that the effect OF this terrific de-
felt uron The people Of the North was
simply stunning If we had only real
lied that night what cunm0ti0n we
had kicked UP in the North, might rs
IL was. we would certainly have run by
the forts and come lack again. lusi to
show that IL could be done, ana met
The Monitor before she could have cast
her guns loose or gotten into lighting
Trim.
The South went wild with joy At
every statiCn az his way TO Richmond
the bearer Of the great news was sur
rounded by large crowds. who insisted
on hearing the story OF the fight. The
hopes of the Confedency were rs high
rs The dependency of the North was
dGcn.
The next morning. while we We're
transferring our admiral to the shore
and preparing for action. we saw com
ing in from the sea the most remarkable
looking craft. which we were soon
convinced was the Monitor Nov all
was excitement. Greek was IL tnc,.
Greek. For the first time in the his
tory of the world ironc!nl vas 10 battle
with irnnclad. The Monitor approach
ed and opened fire, which we returned
with spirit. For two hours we hoiT-
baided each other with iittla ~ no Of
feet. Tie two ships, sailing in u circle
pass and rcpnss delivering .broadsides
at p0int blank range. Lieutenant
Jones coming down from the uprer
grating and observing Lieutenant
itgElcs;on's division standing ut case.
said 10 him: why arc you 70. firing
SIR" because Cur powder Is precious,
sir, and find | can do The Monitor as
much damage by snapplg my fingers
al her every five minutes.
The combat between Inc two vcssa,s
was kept up for six mortal hours ana
Lieutenant Jones decided to ram the
Monitor Now In my opinion here In
The error of the fight. -tfter this decIs-
ION Lieutenant Jones sent for me and
ordered me 10 reverse tn. engines ne
soon as | felt the COLLISION. fe,r;nr,
that we would have difficulty IN cytri-
eating ourselves after the compuct ne
we did with the Cumberland, aiiho,gh
one was wooden and the oiher an iron
vessel. To that end he was afraid "a
strike her hard. and was :iyrn ia
signal II reverse quite a whle bcrrrn
we actually hi her. Aa a consen,,nnco
we just gave the Monitor a llttia ian
and GLANCED of. We should have r,,,,
her down with all our force ana ra:,iv
forced her under with our suna,.in,.
Weight. circlng around after ram.
ming her we we're enabled to plant nno
4 our pointed shells right. on the nilot
house. II was this shot which dam
aged the pilot house and woundad
Commodore Wordcn. The Monitor 5thnr
stood directly toward Old Point ana
gave up the fight. We assumed ma,
She was badly crippled--nore 50 thon
she was. Lieutenant Jones then sent
for me- and calling attention to the fact
that we had driven the Monitor off
said that he intcGicd to draw or
under the guns hf Sewall Point and
renew the attack later in the AFTER
noon. ] then Went below and arranir. |
ed for banking the fires under easy
steam. In the meantime we started IN
full speed and l soon heard great
cheering on deck. / sent one of my as.
sistants to learn the cause He re- |
ported that we were passing the. Con-