The Portland daily press., 1898-03-09
FIGHT OF THE MONITOR.
Now Light on the Famous Engage ment in
Hampton Roads.
From the Chicago Record. J

Monitor fought the Merrimao to draw
In Hampton Roads. Of either crew there
are few survivors. The death of Admiral
Worden recently removed the last officer,
and the last man but one of the Monitor
while of the $40 men on the Merrimac
that day, not more than % corporaps
guard are living now. One of these men
is Major James G. Long of Tiskilwa. He
is only So years old and SO was only 16
when he went through this historic battle
that revolutionized the naval architec-
ture of the world. But his recolle ction of
the eventful day is very clear and dis
tinct.
Major Long was born at Chattanooga,
Tenn. From her doorway his mother
was able to see by day and night most of
the famous battle of Lookout Mountain.
At an early age he entered Annapolis
Naval Academy and upon the outbreak OF
the war he followed the lead of the of1ic-
ers who sided with the South and was
placed in midshipman's berth. In this
capacity he served on The Merrimac. A
large proportion of the officers at Annapo
lis refused to fight the old flag, though
some of them were men Of Southern birth
but most OF the Southerners there es-
poused the cause of the Confederacy.
The Merrimao was the old United States
frigate Of that name rebuilt She was
remodelled SO that she was really only q
floating battery, declares Major Long. She
was armored to the water line, but not
below it. She drew twenty three feet OF
water, but she had such load on her
upper works in the armor that she car
ried that she was topheavy and could
never have lived in rough sea. She
was steam vessel, of course, but inclined
to be unwieldy and slow and awkward
in the handling.
s'She did not enjoy the unlimited con
fidence of her crew." says Major Long.
awe were afraid she might get g. ram or
a shot below the armor belt, and in that
event we understood that our chance Of
escape would be small We should have
had no more chance of making land than
had the crew of the Cumberland, which
we sunk the day before, and which went
down with her flag up, her guns firing
at us and her crew cheering to the last.
If the Monitor had ramned us there or
had been able to depress her guns so as to
land q shot or two there, it world have
been no drawn battle.
s'There are some singular misapprehen-
sions about the fight " says Major Long.
sit Isl general belief that these two
ships steamed about in Hampton Roads,
each manoeuvring to find the other at dis
advantage, sometimes graphing, almost,
and firing all the time; that, in fact,
their guns kept up continuous roar. This
was not so.
"The Monitor arrived in Hompton
Roads on the night of March 8. On that
day the Merrimac had been demolishing
the Federal wooden ships at her pleasure.
She was proof against their projeotiles,
and could shatter them with shot and ram
ut will On that day she sunk the Cum
berlapd, burned the Congress and left the
Minnesota aground, picked prey for the
following day. On moving out to renew
her work the next morning she found her
self opposed by the Monitor and the battle
ensued; the wooden ships, the helpless
victims of the day before, being simply
spectators.
not melodramatic cannoDading. In the
six hours the Monitor fired only forty -one
shots and the Merrimac only forty-six,
total of eighty seven. The Monitor car
ried two guns, the Merrimac eleven, SO
that the pieces averaged less than seven
shots each. There were times wren sew
eral reports came within the space of a
few minutes, but this did not often hap
pen.
s'We had orders to fire whenever we
could bring gunsto bear, regardless of
ton of this order was that the shots be
delivered at the shortest possible range.
Much time was consumed in manoeuvr-
ing the ships, each trying to get as much
advantage az possible while ALLOWING the
least to it's adversary. The Monitors two
guns were placed side by side, but were
never fred sim ultaneously, no matter
how good the opportunity. The Merri-
macs eleven guns were placed four on a
side, two at the bow and ,one command
ing the stern. She might have fired
broadsides, but never did during the
whole engagement, principally because
the Monitor was SO small a target that
the broedside guns could not be brought
to bear on her at once. e%
Providence or fate Or blind luck or
mans lack of foresight. so arranged the
ammunition and armament of both ships
that neither one could win on that day.
The Monitor had two slnoothbore she'll
guns, not adapted to the high pressure
produced by the use of solid shot, and
which, possibly, would have been danger
Gus if solid shot were used, unless the
powder charge were modified. She was
under orders from the ordnance depart
ment not to exceed fifteen pounds of pow
der but she used solid shot.
"Ths Merrimac had fine armament of
large calibre rifles, and could burn any
amount of powder in them, but she had
not expected to do battle with another
ironclad, andS as shells were far more
effective against wooden ships than were
solid shot, she carried nothing else.
"The result of those inadaptations was
singular inefficiency in. bothEships. The
Monitor could pegrsolid shot at the Merri-
mac, but at only about half the proper
velocity. Some ofsthese shot started our
seams and.we had some bent armor plates
but none of these injuries were serious.
1t happened that none of the Monitors
lightning struck us twice in the same
place. On the other hand, the Merrimac.
while able to lond powder enough to give
her shells the higher muzzle velocity,
could not strike telling blowswith them
against the Monitors smooth iron turret,
because they were deficient in weight.
They hit the mark, but3they shattered as
harmlessly as snowballs would break
against barn. They were percussion
shells and broke on contact. The one that
burst outside the grated port through
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