The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1910-07-21
HAMPTON ROADS BATTLE.
An Eyewitness Account Of the Merri-
mac and Monitor Fight.


ed through a spyglass the whole fight
between the Merrimac and the Fed
eral fleet in Hampton Roads and
the contest between the former and
the Monitor.
Il almost got into row here in
New York a few years ago on account
of it," said Mr.. Waller yesterday. II
came up here especially to see cy-
clorama of the battle which was be-
ing exhibited, and the lecturer made
lot of false statements which 1
felt called upon to correct. He be-
came angry, but when 1 explained
that I had seen the fight itself he
apologized and said he didn't know
anything about it, but was speaking
the speech his employers had given
him.
81 was only boy at the time of the
fight, but 1 had several friends on
the Virginia, as the Merrimac had
been renamed after they turned her
into an ironclad. There was young
Dorning, for instance, midshipman,
whose father was an officer in the
Federal navy. Everybody in Nor
folk had relatives and friends on the
boat, and when the news spread that
she was going out to attack the
Federal fleet people began to flock
early in the morning of March 8 to
the waterfront. 1 was at the end of
Main street, which was fully fourteen
miles from the scene of the fight,
but with the spyglass which 1 had
taken from the house near by I could
watch the things pretty closely for
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 saw
mills and she could make only about
four miles an hour. 1t was beau
tiful morning when she got around
the point and headed for the Federal
fleet, which was lying off the mouth
of the James river. I could see that
the first gun she fired was to leeward
and was not aimed at anything
sort of challenge. Then she was
lost in a 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 al
most went wild cheering.
"But it was brave show she made
as she went down, with her guns
firing all the time until they reach
ed the waters edge. Some of them
we could see explode as the water
got to them.
"But the Congress did not make
any attempt to stand her ground.
She just made licketsplit 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, I stayed down
there until it got dark, and you can
imagine everybody in Norfolk was
pretty much excited. VISA awakened
about midnight by an explosion. 1t
was the Congress burning up. She
made things so bright that 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 some
thing over there near where the fight
he'd taken place the day before that
looked like a bean 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 while
we could not tell anything about
how the fight was going until the
Monitor drew off, her turret machin-
cry disabled, and went over and lay
under the guns of the fort.
when the Virginia got back to
Norfolk her funnel looked like
sieve. There wasn't 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 a
whack at the Monitor, but they never
got together. New York Sun.
Saloon Now a Church.