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The Battle of March 8, 1862
As recalled by H. Ashton Ramsey, Chief Engineer of the CSS Virginia
Our smoke stack was riddled, our flag
was shot down several times, and was finally secured to a rent
in the stack. On our gun deck the men were fighting like demons.
There was no thought or time for the wounded and dying as they
tugged away at their guns, training and sighting their pieces
while the orders rang out, "Sponge, load, fire!"
"The muzzle of our gun has been shot
away," cried one of the gunners.
"No matter, keep on loading and firing
— do the best you can with it," replied Lieutenant Jones.
"Keep away from the side ports, don't
lean against the shield, look out for the sharpshooters," rang
the warnings. Some of our men who failed to heed them and leaned
against the shield were stunned and carried below, bleeding
at the ears. All were full of courage and worked with a will;
they were so begrimed with powder that they looked like Negroes.
"Pass along the cartridges."
"More powder."
"A shell for number six."
"A wet wad for the hot-shot gun."
"Put out that pipe and don't light it
again on peril of your life."
Such were the directions and commands
of battle. Our executive officer seemed to be in a dozen places
at once.
This gives some faint notion of the
scene passing behind our grim iron casemate, which to the beholders
without seemed a machine of destruction. Human hearts were beating
and bleeding there. Human lives were being sacrificed. Pain,
death, wounds, glory — that was the sum of it.
On the doomed ship Cumberland
the battle raged with equal fury. The sanded deck was red and
slippery with blood. Delirium seized the crew. They stripped
to their trousers, kicked off their shoes, tied handkerchiefs
about their heads, and fought and cheered as their ship sank
beneath their feet. Then the order came, "All save who can."
There was a scramble for the spar deck and a rush overboard.
The ship listed. The after pivot gun broke loose and rushed
down the decline like a furious animal, rolling over a man as
it bounded overboard, leaving a mass of mangled flesh on deck.
We now turned to the Congress,
which had tried to escape but had grounded, and the battle raged
once more, broadside upon broadside, delivered at close range,
the Merrimac working closer all the time with her bow
pointed as if to ram the Congress. A shell from Lieutenant
Wood's gun sped through their line of powder-passers, not only
cutting down the men, but exploding the powder buckets in their
hands, spreading death and destruction and setting fire to the
ship.
At last came the order, "Cease firing."
"The Congress has surrendered,"
someone cried. "Look out of the port. See, she has run up white
flags. The officers are waving their handkerchiefs."
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Go to Main Category:
The Battle of Hampton Roads: March 8 & 9, 1862
Go to other documents in this category:
"Watching the Merrimac" - R.E.
Colston
"The Men of the Cumberland" -
Rev. R.T.S. Lowell
"In the Monitor Turret" - S.D.
Greene
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