Arizona republican., 1910-03-28
SAW HAMPTON ROADS BATTLE.
Eyewitness Tells of Merrimsc- Monitor
 Fight

R. r. Waller of Norfolk, Va, who is at the Imperial. says that he watched through sypglass the whole fight between the Mcrrimac and the Federal fleet in Hampton Roads and the con- test between the former and the Mon tor, says the New York Sun.
 'I almost got into a row in New York a few years ago on account of it." said Mir. Waller yesterday. T came up here especially to see d cy- clorama of the battle which was being exhibited. and the lecturer made d lot of false statements which I felt called upon to correct. He became angry. but when l explained that ! had seen the fight itself he apologized and said he didn't know anything about 1t, but was speaking the speech his employers had given him.
 ''I was only a boy at :he time of teh fight. but l had several friends un the Virginia, as the Merrimac had been re- named after they turned her into an ironclad. There was young Downing, for instance. midshipman. whose father was an officer in the federal navy. Everybody in Norfolk had re- latives and friends on the boat. ana when the news spread that she was going out to attack the federal fleet, people began to flock early in thc morning of March to the waterfront. was at the end of Main street. wnicn was fully fourteen miles from the scene of the fight. but with the spy glass which 1 had taken from our house nearby could watch things pretty close for d time. until the smoke got so thick you couldn't see anything over there at all.
 The Virginia wasn't much for looks Her boilers and engines were of the kind that are used in sawmills and snc could make only about four miles an hour It was beautiful morning when she got around the point and heaced for the federal fleet, which Was lying off the mouth of the James river l could see that the first gun she fired was to leeWaTd and was not aimed at anything-a sort of challenge. Then she was lost in 2 cloud of smoke and we could hear the big guns going for what seemed to be hours. Then the smoke lifted and We could make out the Cumberland beginning to go down by the head. The crowd almost went wild with cheering.
 But it was a brave show she made as she went down, with her guns firing the time until her guns reached the waters edge. Some of them we could see explode as the water got into them.
 But the Congress did not make any attempt to stand her ground. She just made licktysplit for Old Point. so as to get near Fortress Monroe, but she struck on a bar as we watched and then there was more cheering. Well, stayed down there until it got dark, and you can imagine everybody in Norfolk was pretty much excited. I was awakened about midnight by an explosion. It was the Congress burn ing up. She made things SD bright hat you could read a newspaper where ' was.
 "Of course nobody in Norfolk knew anything about the Monitor, and when the next morning word spread about that there was something over there near where the fight had taken place the day before that looked like a basin on a chip people flocked out to the waterfront.
 The Virginia went out and the two got busy as soon as the Virginia got within range. once in q while we could see one vessel or t1ie other. but We could not tell anything about how the fight was going until the Monitor drew off, her turret machinery dis abled. and went over and lay under the guns of the fort.
 When the Virginia got back to Nor folk her funnel looked like a sieve. There wasn't a piece of it as large as your hand which was not riddled but the only serious damage was that one of her guns had been disabled. They fixed her up and she went out twice after that to get d whack at the Moni- tor. but they never got together.