and found them abandoned. Lieutenant Pembroke Jones was then dispatched to Norfolk, some miles distant, to call upon General Huger, who was in command, and learn the condition of affairs. He returned during the afternoon, reporting, to our great surprise, the town deserted by our troops and the navyyard on fire. This precipitate retreat was entirely unnecessary, for while the Virginia remained afloat, Norfolk was safe, or, at all events, not tenable by the enemy, and James River was partly guarded, for we could have retired behind the obstructions in the channel at Craney Island, and, with the batteries at that point, could have held the place, certainly until all the valuable stores and machinery had been removed from the navy-yard. Moreover, had the Virginia been afloat at the time of the battles around Richmond, General McClellan would hardly have retreated to James River; for, had he done so, we could at any time have closed it, and rendered any position on it untenable.

However, Norfolk evacuated, our occupation was gone, and the next thing to be decided was what should be done with the ship. Two courses of action were open to us: we might have run the blockade of the forts and done some damage to the shipping there and at the mouth of the York River, provided they did not get out of our way, - for, with our great draught and low rate of speed, the enemy's transports would have gone where we could not follow them; and the Monitor and other ironclads would engage us with every advantage, playing around us as rabbits around a sloth, and the end would have been the certain loss of the vessel. On the other hand, the pilots said repeatedly, if the ship were lightened to eighteen feet, they could take her up James River to Harrison's Landing or City Point, where she could have been put in fighting trim again, and be in a position to assist in the defense of Richmond. The commodore decided upon this course. Calling all hands on deck, he told them what he wished done. Sharp and quick work was necessary; for, to be successful, the ship must be lightened five feet, and we must pass the batteries at Newport News and the fleet below before daylight next morning. The crew gave three cheers, and went to work with a will, throwing overboard the ballast from the fan-tails, as well as that below, all spare stores, water, indeed everything but our powder and shot. By midnight the ship had lightened three feet, when, to our amazement, the pilots said it was useless to do more, that with the westerly wind blowing, the tide would be cut down so that the ship would not go up even to Jamestown Flats; indeed, they would not take the respon

In his official report, Captain Van Brunt says of the fight, as viewed from the Minnesota: "At 6 A. M. the enemy again appeared, and I beat to quarters; but they run past my ship and were heading for Fortress Monroe, and the retreat was beaten to enable my men to get something to eat. The Merrimac ran down near the Rip-Raps and then turned into the channel through which I had come. Again all hands were called to

quarters, and opened upon her with my stern-guns, and made signal to the right within the range of the Merrimac, completely covering my ship, as ishment, laid herself right alongside of the Merrimac, and the contrast

Monitor to attack the enemy. She immediately ran down in my wake,

far as was possible with her diminutive dimensions, and, much to my aston

was that of a pigmy to a giant. Gun after gun was fired by the Monitor, which was returned with whole broadsides from the Rebels, with no more effect, apparently, than so many pebble-stones thrown by a child.

The Merrimac, finding that she could make nothing of the Monitor, turned her attention once more to me. In the morning she had put eleven-inch shot under my counter, near the water-line, and now, on her second approach, I opened upon her with all my broadside-guns and ten

inch pivot - a broadside which would have blown out of water any timber

built ship in the world. She returned my fire with her rifled bow-gun with a shell which passed through the chief engineer's state-room, through the engineers' mess-room amidships, and burst in the boatswain's room, tear

ing four rooms all into one, in its passage exploding two charges of powder, which set the ship on fire, but it was promptly extinguished by a party headed by my first lieutenant."-ED.

sibility of taking her up the river at all. This extraordinary conduct of the pilots rendered some other plan immediately necessary. Moral: All officers, as far as possible, should learn to do their own piloting.

The ship had been so lifted as to be unfit for action; two feet of her hull below the shield was exposed. She could not be sunk again by letting in water without putting out the furnace fires and flooding the magazines. Never was a commander forced by circumstances over which he had no control into a more painful position than was Commodore Tatnall. But coolly and calmly he decided, and gave orders to destroy the ship; determining if he could not save his vessel, at all events not to sacrifice three hundred brave and faithful men. That he acted wisely, the fight at Drury's Bluff, which was the salvation of Richmond, soon after proved. She was run ashore near Craney Island and the crew landed with their small-arms and two days' provisions.

Having only two boats, it took three hours to disembark. Lieutenant Catesby Jones and myself were the last to leave. Setting her on fire fore and aft, she was soon in a blaze, and by the light of our burning ship we pulled for the shore, landing at daybreak. We marched 22 miles to Suffolk and took the cars for Richmond. The news of the destruction of the Virginia caused a most profound feeling of disappointment and indignation throughout the South, particularly as so much was expected of the ship after our first success. On Commodore Tatnall the most unsparing and cruel aspersions were cast. He promptly demanded a court of inquiry, and, not satisfied with this, a court-martial, whose unanimous finding after considering the facts and circumstances was: " Being thus situated, the only alternative, in the opinion of the court, was to abandon and burn the ship then and there; which, in the judgment of the court, was deliberately and wisely done by order of the accused. Wherefore, the court do award the said Captain Josiah Tatnall an honorable acquittal."

It only remains now to speak of our last meeting with the Monitor. Arriving at Richmond, we heard that the enemy's fleet were ascending James River, and the result was great alarm; for, relying upon the Virginia, not a gun had been mounted to protect the city from a water attack. We were hurried to Drury's Bluff, the first high ground below the city, seven miles distant. [See map of the Peninsula on page 774.-ED.] Here, for two days, exposed to constant rain, in bottomless mud and without shelter, on scant provisions, we worked unceasingly, mounting guns and obstructing the river. In this we were aided by the crews of small vessels which had escaped up the river before Norfolk was abandoned. The Jamestown and some small sailingvessels were sunk in the channel, but owing to the high water occasioned by a freshet the obstructions were only partial. We had only succeeded in getting into position three thirtytwos and two sixty-fours (shell guns) and were without sufficient supply of ammunition, when on the 15th of May the iron-clad Galena, followed by the Monitor and three others, hove in sight. We opened fire as soon as they came within range, directing most of it on the Galena. This vessel was handled very skillfully. Coming up within six hundred yards of the battery, she anchored, and, with a spring from her quarter, presented her broadside; this under a heavy fire, and in a narrow river, with a strong current. The Monitor and others anchored just below, answering our fire deliberately; but, owing to the great elevation of the battery, their fire was in a great measure ineffectual, though two guns were dismounted VOL. XXIX.-76.

Finding they could make no impression on our works, the Galena, after an action of four hours, returned down the river with her consorts. Her loss was about forty killed and wounded.

This was one of the boldest and best-conducted operations of the war, and one of which very little notice has been taken. Had Commodore Rodgers been supported by a few brigades, landed at City Point or above on the south side, Richmond would have been evacuated. The Virginia's crew alone barred his way to Richmond; otherwise the obstructions would not have prevented his steaming up to the city, which would have been as much at his mercy as was New Orleans before the fleet of Farragut.

It should be remembered that as spring opened General McClellan was urged by the administration and the press to make a forward movement. Anticipating this, General J. E. Johnston, better to cover Richmond and to shorten his lines, retired to the Rappahannock and later to the James. General McClellan wisely determined to use the navi

to them the probable dangers of the passage to Hampton Roads and the certainty of having important service to perform after arriving. The sailors responded enthusiastically, many more volunteering than were required. Of the crew selected, Captain Worden said, in his official report of the engagement, "A better one no naval commander ever had the honor to command."

We left New York in tow of the tug-boat Seth Low at II A. M. of Thursday, the 6th of March. On the following day a moderate

breeze was encountered, and it was at once evident that the Monitor was unfit for a sea-going craft. Nothing but the subsidence of the wind prevented her from being shipwrecked before she reached Hampton Roads. The berth-deck hatch leaked in spite of all we could do, and the water came down under the turret like a waterfall. It would strike the pilot-house and go over the turret in beautiful curves, and it came through the narrow eye-holes in the pilot-house with such force as to knock the helmsman completely round from the wheel. The waves also broke over the blowerpipes, and the water came down through them in such quantities that the belts of the blower

Pilot- Anchor house. well.

engines slipped, and the engines consequently stopped for lack of artificial draught, without which, in such a confined place, the fires could not get air for combustion. Newton and Stimers, followed by the engineer's force, gallantly rushed into the engine-room and fireroom to remedy the evil, but they were unable to check the inflowing water, and were nearly suffocated with escaping gas. They were dragged out more dead than alive, and carried to the top of the turret, where the fresh air gradually revived them. The water continued to pour through the hawser-hole, and over and down the smoke-stacks and blowerpipes, in such quantities that there was imminent danger that the ship would founder. The steam-pumps could not be operated because the fires had been nearly extinguished, and the engine-room was uninhabitable on account of the suffocating gas with which it was filled. The hand-pumps were then rigged and worked, but they had not enough force to throw the water out through the top of the turret, the only opening, and it was useless to bail, as we had to pass the buckets up through the turret, which made it a very long operation. For

(FROM A PHOTO

Your obedient servant,

J. ERICSSON.