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In the Monitor Turret 1
by S.D. Greene
Notes
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The general features of the Monitor are well known.
The vessel was an iron-clad steam battery. The thin lower
hull was protected by an overhanging armor. A revolving
turret, containing the guns, was situated on deck, in the
center of the vessel. The principal dimensions were: Length
over all, 172 feet; breadth over all, 41 feet 6 inches;
draught of water, 11 feet; inside diameter of turret, 20
feet; height of turret, 9 feet; thickness of turret, 8 inches;
thickness of side armor, 5 inches; thickness of deck-plates,
1 inch; thickness of pilot-house, 9 inches. Her deck was
one foot above the water-line. She carried two 11-inch smooth-bore
guns, firing solid shot weighing 180 pounds. Her speed was
between four and five knots. A novel feature was the absence
of smoke-stacks in action; they and the pipes over the blowers
were taken apart and laid flat on deck, which gave an all-round
fire abaft. The draught to the furnaces was maintained by
powerful blowers. The tops of the smoke-stacks were six
feet above the deck, and the blower-pipes four and a half
feet. These openings in the deck were covered by iron gratings.
Her people were: Lieutenant J. L. Worden, commanding; Lieutenant
S.D. Greene, executive officer; Acting Master, L.N. Stodder;
Acting Master, J.N. Webber; Acting Master's Mate, George
Frederickson; Acting Assistant Surgeon, D. C. Logue; Acting
Assistant Paymaster, W. F. Keeler; Chief Engineer, A. C.
Stimers, inspector; First Assistant Engineer, Isaac Newton,
in charge of steam machinery; Second Assistant Engineer,
A. B. Campbell; Third Assistant Engineer, R.W. Hands; Fourth
Assistant Engineer, M. T. Sunstrom; Captain's Clerk, Daniel
Toffey; Quartermaster, Peter Williams; Gunner's Mate, Joseph
Crown; Boatswain's Mate, John Stocking; and forty-two others
— a total of fifty-eight souls. - S.D.G.
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For details respecting the invention of the Monitor, the
reader is referred to a biographical paper on Captain Ericsson
by Colonel W.C. Church in this magazine for April,1879.
The origin of the name Monitor is given in the following
letter to Gustavus V. Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
[Ed.]: -
New York, January 20th, 1862
SIR:
In accordance with your request, I now submit for your
approbation a name for the floating battery at Green Point.
The impregnable and aggressive character of this structure
will admonish the leaders of the Southern Rebellion that
the batteries on the banks of their rivers will no longer
present barriers to the entrance of the Union forces.
The iron-clad intruder will thus prove a severe monitor
to those leaders. But there are other leaders who will
also be startled and admonished by the booming of the
guns from the impregnable iron turret. "Downing Street"
will hardly view with indifference this last "Yankee notion,"
this monitor. To the Lords of the Admiralty the new craft
will be a monitor suggesting doubts as to the propriety
of completing those four steel-clad ships at three-and-a-half
millions apiece. On these and many similar grounds I propose
to name the new battery Monitor.
Your obedient servant,
J. Ericsson
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The fortune of civil war was illustrated in the case of
the Merrimac. Commodore Buchanan's brother was an
officer of the Congress, and each knew of the other's
presence. The first and fourth lieutenants had each a brother
in the United States Army. The father of the fifth lieutenant
was also in the United States Army. The father of one of
the midshipmen was in the United States Navy. Lieutenant
Butt, of the, had been the room-mate of Lieutenant Greene
of the Monitor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
- ED.
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"My men and myself were perfectly black with smoke and powder.
All my underclothes were perfectly black, and my person
was in the same condition. I had been up so long, and been
under such a state of excitement, that my nervous system
was completely run down. My nerves and muscles twitched
as though electric shocks were continually passing through
them. I lay down and tried to sleep — I might as well have
tried to fly." From a private letter of Lieutenant Greene,
written just after the fight. -ED.
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I was twenty-two years of age, and previous to joining the
Monitor had seen less than three years of active
service, with the rank of midshipman.-S.D.G.
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In regard to this criticism of the Monitor, Captain Ericsson
has sent to the Editor the following statement: "Evidently
the author refers to sea-going qualities, forgetful of the
fact that the Monitor was constructed to perform the functions
of a river-battery, impregnable to Confederate ordnance
of the heaviest caliber. With reference to its properties
as a fighting machine, the maritime world deemed it not
only a complete success, but a remarkable specimen of naval
engineering. The Emperor of Russia accordingly sent the
accomplished Admiral Lessoffsky to study its construction
and watch the building of the new fleet of Passaic class
of monitors - which, in all essential features, resembled
the original. The Russian admiral, after having been present
during a trial trip from New York to Fortress Monroe, of
the monitor Montauk (subsequently hit by Confederate shot
214 times) reported so favorably to his government that
the Emperor ordered twelve vessels to be built to Captain
Ericsson's plans, precisely like the American monitors.
This fleet paid a visit to Stockholm immediately after completion,
causing a profound sensation among the Swedes."
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On account of the recent death of the writer of this paper,
which occurred December 11, 1884, soon after its preparation,
the proofs did not receive the benefit of his revision.
The article appears substantially in the form in which it
was written, without changes other than verbal ones and
a slight rearrangement of paragraphs.
Commander S. Dana Greene was the son of General George S.
Greene, who was graduated at West Point in 1823, and served
with distinction throughout the Civil War, being severely
wounded in the face at the battle of Wauhatchie, neat Chattanooga,
Tenn., in October, 1863. He was appointed to the Naval Academy
from Rhode Island in 1855, and was graduated in 1859. He
served as midshipman on the Hartford in the China Squadron
from 1859 to 1862; as lieutenant on the Monitor in 1862;
on the Florida in 1863, blockading on the coast of North
Carolina; on the Iroquois, under Commander (now Rear-Admiral)
C. R. P. Rodgers, in 1864-65, making a cruise around the
world in search of the Alabama, but without finding her,
that honor having fallen to the Kearsarge; as lieutenant-commander
on the Ossipee, Saranac, and Pensacola, in the Pacific Squadron
in 1868 to 1871; as commander of the Juniata and Monongahela
in the Atlantic Squadron, in 1875 to 1878, and of the Despatch
in 1883-84; with intervals of shore duty in various positions
at the Naval Academy in 1865-68, 1872-74, 1878-83. He died
at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, December 11, 1884, aged 44.
Of the services of Mr. Greene in connection with the Monitor,
Captain made the following official record in a letter to
the Secretary of the Navy: "I was ordered to her (the Monitor)
on the 13th of January, 1862, when she was still on stocks.
Prior to that date Lieutenant S.D. Greene had interested
himself in her and thoroughly examined her construction
and design and informed himself as to her qualities, and,
notwithstanding the many gloomy predictions of naval officers
and officers of the mercantile marine as to the great probability
of her sinking at sea, volunteered to go in her, and, at
my request, was ordered. From the date of his orders he
applied himself unremittingly and intelligently to the study
of her peculiar qualities and to her fitting and equipment.
Lieutenant Greene, after taking his place in the pilot-house
and finding the injuries there less serious than I supposed,
had turned the vessel's head again in the direction of the
enemy to continue the engagement; but before he could get
at close quarters with her she retired. He therefore very
properly returned to the Minnesota and lay by her until
she floated. Lieutenant Greene, the executive officer, had
charge in the turret, and handled the guns with great courage,
coolness, and skill; and throughout the engagement, as in
the equipment of the vessel and on her passage to Hampton
Roads, he exhibited an earnest devotion to duty unsurpassed
in my experience." - ED.
Go to Main Category:
The Battle of Hampton Roads: March 8 & 9, 1862
Go to other documents in this category:
"The Battle of March 8, 1862" -
H. Ashton Ramsey
"Watching the Merrimac" - R.E.
Colston
"The Men of the Cumberland" -
Rev. R.T.S. Lowell
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