Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-09


stand the action of salt water; at least
no satisfactory substitute had been
found for it.
THE similarity of uniforms compli-
Gated our plans in the event of our
boarding the Monitor and taking her by
hand-to-hand fight, as we expected to
do. In such a miX-up there would be
little chance to distinguish friend from
foe, We prepared to board however,
and marked ourselves by tying on white
sashes or white cloths around our left
arms. l wore a sash. Once we might
have boarded the Monitor 1t was when
we made a feeble effort to ram her and
failed, our commander fearing the effect
of a hard shock on the Merrimacs
frame and stopping against the Monitor
with a gentle bump that hurt no one
We slid apart, firing a shot or two but
there was no ramming and no boarding
During the progress of the fight, we
learned TO get our bodies out OF the
way of the Monitors fire. We soon grew
expert at judging her intentions, and
could tell when shot was coming and
about where it was likely to hit us. We
cleared our ports whenever she was
about to pay us one of those compli-
ments. Our poor old smokestack, how
ever, couldn't dodge, and it was riddled
with shot large and small--in addition
to the perforatlons perpetrated by the
fleet the day before-till it was mostly
holes. This interfered with our fur
mace draught considerably, but did no
vital damage.
'I was out on deck but once Our
pilot house, well forward on our low
freeboard. had been taken away as a
needless and cumbrous affair. and the
commander occupied a hatchway where
1t mad stood, thrusting his head above
the deck now and then to keep sur
vey of the scene. ] crept out of port
and carried word of some kind to him.
A Yankee gunner on one of the ships
came near saving me the trouble of a
return to my station, missing me not
over four feet with a small piece at a
good long range. l had been feeling
very brave but I lost no time getting
under cover.
at is another erroneous impression that
the Monitor was all that saved Washing :
ton and New York and the other federal
mac could never have reached any OF
them. She dared not try the short ocean
voyage, and she drew too much water, be-
sides which she must have eventually sue
cumbed to the pounding she would nave
got from the federal fleet. She could never
have lived through the punishment OF the
guns of Fortress Monroe if she had tried
to go to Washington. and the shallow Po-
tomac would never have let her get there.
She would have failed in the same manner
to reach New York.
"She could not even have defended the
confederate capital against the Monitor If
the Monitor had chosen to go there. The
Monitors light draught would have per
mitted her to proceed up the James river
| and to shell Richmond into ruins. For
| some reason she did not embrace this
chance. and in the meantime the confed-
crates blocked the river with distractions
and torpedoes, and that movement there
after became impossible: The Merrimae
was a terror to wooden ships, but she was
not a ship herself, in the full sense of the
| tern-nothing more than a floating bat
| terry"
Major Long was in the blockade running
service of the confederacy, and did duty
| in it's navy in other capacity-part of the
! time in engineering work-till he was cap.
| tured, near the close of the war. Soor
j after his release at the close of hostilities
| he got a place in the engineer corps of the
| United States, and he is there still. He is
now assistant engineer in charge of the
eastern section of the Hennepin canal.