The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-03

Al the guns there was the greatest he | roisn1. Two of the gunners claspe, their guns in their arms and would no |, be removed, going down with them Matthew Tenny fired his gun when tn water Was almost to it's muzzle ant that made the last shot, All felt as di( one by the name of Wood who witt
 both arms and legs gone turned ava, these who would have helped them witl
 the words, Back to your guns, boys
 Give them flts Hurrah for the flag'
 And he went down with her. On board
 the Congress one shot killed every mar
 at the guns but one The paymaster or
 board was loyal man named Buchan-
 an. own brother to the commander oi
 the Merrimac. That was the way the
 War divided families. The last word
 that came from the gallant Cumberland
 was the reply of it's commander Morris
 to the call of the commander Buchan-
 an, MT. Morris, will you surrender the
 ehip?" Never" cried Morris. Sink
 her!" The commander of the Congress
 was Joseph Smith. When the father
 saw a dispatch from Fortress Hondoe
 that there was a white flag flying from the masthead of the frigate in token of
 surrender he quietly replied, Joe is
 dead. It would never have raised in his
 life" So it proved. Said Paymaster
 Buchanan after the conflict. T thank God I did some service to my beloved
 country" an utterance that places in
 the blackest contrast the treason of his
 brother.
 That night was one of extreme anxie-
 ty to the fleet and army at Fortress
 Monroe and to the whole land. A cab-
 inet meeting was called at the capitol,
 and the fear was expressed that the
 whole southern cosat would have to be
 given up and the troops recalled. 1t
 was not known but that in few hours
 the shot from the Merrmac would be
 hurled into Washington. But what
 saith our text? If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us" Let us try the nssue in the presence of it.
 In 1903 was born in Sweden one who was named John Erisson He became in early life a distinguished engineer. But Sweden did not promise to him the field the new world did. So he came to this country in the year 1889. Here his inventions were many and some of them most remarkable. For years he had worked upon a model that in his judgment would revolutionize the na- vies Of the world. At about the time of the outbreak of the rebellion he had worked it out to the minutest detail, and the plan was accepted conditionally by the, government. The keel was laid in Greenpoint, October, 1861, and in about three months she was launched no the 25th of February she was com missioned and turned over to the gov ernment. She was called Monitor" because to the rebels she was to be a Monitor that nothing could stay the progress of the national arms; while to England it was to be a Monitor that nothing in her navies that could hold | her supremacy in the future, The | crew was a volunteer one from the war | ships North Carolina and the Sabine. I It was also a picked crew since many | more volunteered than could be used. | It was therefore as nearly perfect as any crew could be. There was but one drawback. There was not time enough allowed for the men to become fully ac- luainted with the mechanism and { of the novel craft. Nine days efter It's commission it started for For Lrsss Monroe. If there had been a se- were storm on the passage it would nev- ar have gotten there. As that was not 10 be they approached the fortress the lay of the first battle and heard the oar of the guns twenty miles away. Their eyes behed the burning Congress, II md speedily the crew heard the dire idings and knew what was to be their work as soon as day break came. The yloom on board the ships and within he fortress was not frightened much at he sight of the champion. It had the appearance of long oval raft rising oot and half out of the water On his was a tower nine feet high and wenty feet in diameter The tower vas of iron which was laid nearly cot in thickness In it were but two eavy guns that could be made to bear pon any point by the revolutions of he turret, That was all there was in he way of attack and defense. Inferior q size and greatly inferior in arma- lent to the Merrimac. At about half ast seven the Merrimac was seen teaming out to complete the work of he day before in the capture of the and the total destruction of he fleet in the Roads. It was not long eforel they saw a strange looking af- air leave the side of the Minnesota and cam toward them. It looked to them like Cheese box on a raft" It must ave excited feelings similar to what elijah had when he saw the boy come Ut against him with no armament but
 sling and pebbles. It did not take ng to get together, for they were of le same mind in that respect. And 1t i'd not take very long for the Merrimac find out that the foe was to take all
 her power and even then the issue ould be doubtful Hour after houh e iron-clads hammered each other. times they were only q few yards ,art Once the Merrimac rammed the onitor and got solid one hundred Il Id eighty pound shot for it's trouble. nen the little Monitor made drive =
 the keel of the Merrimac and came ithin two feet of it. If a shell had F tered one of the port holes of the lit- , craft it would have ended the fight, l.
 there were no relief men on board. ,om after boom, shot after shot