The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1902-03-15

Ourneu, ana Wnlcn nad been patched
up. She could make only five miles
an hour, remember. But she had an
iron prov four feet long under tile
water, and her great feat was to ram.
So she made right for the Cumber-
land, and struck her full on the
starboard prov.
From where was, mile away
some Of the shot passed over mel
could see the vessels come together,
and at first it seemed that both must
sink. The spars of the Cumberland
showed that she was careening with
in five minutes after she was struck,
and in fifteen minutes she went to
the bottom. l thought our ship was
going, too, for she had caught that
iron prov in the wooden sides of the
Cumberland and could not break loose
at first. But she backed her engines
and finally managed to pull away.
But she left her iron PROV in the
United States vessel.
''The Merrimac then kept on up
the river, to turn, and evidently the
Congress thought she was going
away, for she paid no more attention
to her. But after she turned and
bore down on the Congress again that
vessel saw that she was in for it.
The fate of the Cumberland warned
her, SO she started to get away. But
she grounded and stuck. She had
slipped her Sable in her haste to get
away. The Merrimac opened fire on
her and she surrendered. But in the
meantime the Merrimac had opened
on the shore batteries and put many
Of them out of the fighting.
"The Yankees fired on us when we
had accepted the surrender of the
Congress and were removing their
wounded, so the Merrimac fired hot
shot at her and set her afre about
o'clock that evening. She blew up
about O'Clock Sunday morning.
"That ended things for Saturday,
and showed that there was not a
wooden vessel afoat that could tackle
our Merrimac. / forgot to say that
we had fired at the Minnesota, which
had come into the game, but had
stranded about mile off. She was
left there for the night, and the Mer-
rimac returned to her anchorage.
"We went back to our station, but
we didn't sleep much that night. The
day had been one of the most peculiar
| had ever known. The yellow haze
was over everything, and at first there
was no sound from the guns at little
distance. This was a peculiar atmos-
pheric condition which l have never
known since. After the fight was
well on, however, we could hear the
firing very plainly.
Sunday we were up very early, for
with the rise of the tide we knew that
the Merrlmac would go after the
Minnesota and the other United States
ships. The shores were lined with
thousands Of people, all looking at the
battle. We put out in our little boat
and saw it from the water, The Mer-
rimac came out to attack the Min
nesota, and from out behind that
vessel came the Monitor. We couldn't
make out what the thing was at first
and as you know, our men called it
"a Yankee cheesebox. That is just
what it looked like.
"The Merrimac fired at her, and
she returned the fire but neither
seemed to have any effect. The Mer-
rimac finally seemed to be trying to
tight the Minnesota without regard to
the Monitor, as she was not harming
ANY one. But the Merrimac was run
aground, two miles from the Mime
sofa. The Monitor only drew eleven
feet and she circled all around the
Merrimac firing at will. This lasted
about twenty minu'es: then the Mer-
rimac got ahoat again, and after some
clever work, she rammed the Monitor.
But Of course she did not have her
iron prov; still, the impact was some
thing terrible II she had had her
prov, she would have lifted the Mon
itcF clean out Of the water AS ii