The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-19
ONLY SURVIVING OFFICER
ON THE MONITOR IN HER FAMOUS RATTLE WITH THE MERRIMAC.
Captain Louis N. Stodder-His Reminis- cences of the Brilliant Fight-Well Known In New London.

cences of the Brilliant Fight-well Known In New London.
 Captain Louis N Stodder of the Unit ed States revenue marine service, was a second lieutenant on the revenue cut ter James Campbell, a sailing schoon- er that was formerly stationed at New London With his family he resided on Howard street in. that city and was well known in New London thirty years ago. and the acquaintance was re- newed by his later visits to his post as commander of the revenue cutter U. s. Grant. The captain is the only sur viving officer of the historic Monitor, and the following from the Brooklyn Eagle is not without local interest:
 For several years past a quiet house on Monroe street, Brooklyn, has been the home of an erect, clear eyed white haired man of sixty, who, albiet, gentle of speech, and modest in bearing, has played his part in history. His name is Louis N. Stodder, captain in the rev enue service, and since the recent death of Rear Admiral John Lorimer Wor den, the sole survivor of the little group of brave and devoted men who were officers of the Monitor when she fought the Merrimac.
 Captain Stodder was born in Boston in 1889, went to sea in his youth, and at the opening of the civil war entered the Federal navy He was a student in the gunnery school then maintained in the Brooklyn navy yard when in January, 1862, two volunteers were called for to work the guns of the uncompleted Mon- !tor. On the instant the eager young stripling, anxious to be at more excit- ing, if not more serious labor than at that time fell to his lot, offered himself for service, to be, without delay, made navigating officer of the Monitor, and to have his own fortunes bound up with tose of the new craft. Time has dealt kindly with him in the five-and thirty years that have since intervened, and when I talked with him the other day, I found his recital of the Monitors his tory most graphic, his memory never at a loss for date or name. The Monitor, you know" said Captain Scud- der to me, was in measure a Brook lyn vessel for her keel was laid in the shipyard of Thomas Rowland at Green point in October, 1861, and she was launched there on January 30, 1862, She went into commission on February 25, and nine days later left New York for Hampton Roads, where on March g occurred her memorable fight with the Merrimac. It has always seemed to me that benefcent providence timed her departure from New York. Several < days before she had put to sea, intend- ing, as 1t was believed by her officers and crew, to proceed to Washington by way of Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake an accident befel her steering gear and she was compelled to return to New York. but had she been able to proceed on her voyage, she would have been at Washington when the Merrimac appeared in Hampton Roads, and a meeting between them would have been impossible, at least be- fore the Merrimac had completed the destruction of the Federal fleet lying in the Roads.
 taThe voyage to Hampton Roads prov- ed a trying one, but no serious mishap attended 1t, and at o'clock in the af- terIioon of Saturday, March g, the Mon itor was off Cape Henry. There we heard the distant booming of heavy guns. At first Commander Worden and the rest thought the sound came from the artiller at Fortress Monroe, but soon pilot came aboard and said that the Merrinac had begun her work in Hampton Roads. Immediately our commander ordered the Monitor strip- per of her sea rig, and practice at the guns began preparatory to the work which we now knew awaited us on the morrow, and whose importance was made all the clearer when we arrived off Fortress Monroe at g o'clock that night"
 'eTell me something about the Merri- mac" I interjected
 ''TIer origin and history were both re- markable," said Captain Stodder. When the Union forces abandoned Norfolk in the early summer of '61 they burned a number of ships on leaving. Among the vessels burned and sunk was the $500 ton frigate Merrimac, which the Confederates when they took possession of Norfolk, raised and con lverted into lronclad. The Merrimac, commanded by Franklin Buchanan, an officer who had stood high in the old navy, made her first appearance in Hampton Roads about midday on March 8. During the fight that follow ed she sunk the Cumberland and forc- cd the surrender of the Congress, leay- ing the frigates Roanoke, St. Lawrence and Minnesota all grounded and help less, to be dispatched on the morrow When she retired to Sewall's Point for the night she had only lost twenty men and a couple of guns.
 Such was the condition of affairs when the Monitor arrived off Fortress Monroe, and picking her way through the Roads, shortly before midnight came to anchor close to the stranded Minnesota. Near at hand lay the Cum berIand at the bottom of the river with her colors flying at the peak, while an hour or so after we anchored the Con- gress blew up sending skyward, one af. ter the other, dozen brilliant showers of sparks and ending her career in a moving, but mournfu blaze of glory