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Watching the Merrimac
By R. E. Colston, Brigadier-General, C.S.A.
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Map
of Hampton Roads, Virginia
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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In March, 1862, I was in command of
a Confederate brigade and of a district on the south side of
the James River embracing all the river forts and batteries
down to the mouth of Nansemond River. My pickets were posted
all along the shore opposite Newport News. From my headquarters
at Smithfield I was in constant and rapid communication through
relays of couriers and signal stations with my department commander,
Major-General Huger, stationed at Norfolk.
About 1 P.M. on the 8th of March, a
courier dashed up to my headquarters with this brief dispatch:
"The Virginia is coming up the river." Mounting at once,
it took me but a very short time to gallop twelve miles down
to Ragged Island.
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USS
Cumberland
From the Collections of The Mariners' Museum
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I had hardly dismounted at the water's
edge when I descried [sic] the Merrimac approaching.
The Congress was moored about a hundred yards below the
land batteries, and the Cumberland a little above them.
As soon as the Merrimac came within range, the batteries
and war-vessels opened fire. She passed on up, exchanging broadsides
with the Congress, and making straight for the Cumberland,
at which she made a dash, firing her bow-guns as she struck
the doomed vessel with her prow. I could hardly believe my senses
when I saw the masts of the Cumberland begin to sway
wildly. After one or two lurches, her hull disappeared beneath
the water, guns firing to the last moment. Most of her brave
crew went down with their ship, but not with their colors, for
the Union flag still floated defiantly from the masts, which
projected obliquely for about half their length above the water
after the vessel had settled unevenly upon the river-bottom.
This first act of the drama was over in about thirty minutes,
but it seemed to me only a moment.
The commander of the Congress
recognized at once the impossibility of resisting the assault
of the ram which had just sunk the Cumberland. With commendable
promptness and presence of mind, he slipped his cables, and
ran her aground upon the shallows, where the Merrimac,
at that time drawing twenty-three feet of water, was unable
to approach her, and could attack her with artillery alone.
But, although the Congress had more guns than the Merrimac,
and was also supported by the land batteries, it was an unequal
conflict, for the projectiles hurled at the Merrimac
glanced harmlessly from her iron-covered roof, while her rifled
guns raked the Congress from end to end.
A curious incident must be noted here.
Great numbers of people from the neighborhood of Ragged Island,
as well as soldiers from the nearest posts, had rushed to the
shore to behold the spectacle. The cannonade was visibly raging
with redoubled intensity; but, to our amazement, not a sound
was heard by us from the commencement of the battle. A strong
March wind was blowing direct from us toward Newport News. We
could see every flash of the guns and the clouds of white smoke,
but not a single report was audible.
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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
"The Men of the Cumberland" -
Rev. R.T.S. Lowell
"In the Monitor Turret" - S.D.
Greene
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