Our navy in time of war (1861-1898)

Front matter

EDITED BY WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D.

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION

DIVISION III

Preface

The deeds of the navy of the United States have been ever glorious. That part of them related in these pages, covering the period from 1861 to 1898, has been selected not because there was greater glory in the deeds of the American navy in the civil war and in the war with Spain than in the earlier days of the service, but chiefly because the types of vessels and of guns now in general use throughout the Avorld were begun and developed in part in the American civil war. The armor, the turreted battle ship, the swift cruiser, the rifled guns of to-day were the direct outgrowth of the civil war. The wooden war ship and the smooth-bore guns were doomed as the result of tliat conflict. The battle ship of 1808 is simply the turreted monitor and the armored battle ship of 1863 combined and improved. The men of to-day, though just as brave, are no whit braver than the men of the Ivevolutionary war or the War of 1812.

Xot all the details of the work of the navy in the years covered by this book are given here. An atxvi OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR.

tempt has been made to tell the story of the chiei events, and to bring out their significance, especially for young readers. The book is intended also to interest those who never grow old or feeble in patriotism^ and who are proud of American prowess on the seas, Avhether they be sixteen or three-score and ten, or even older.

The terms North and South are used instead of Federal and Confederate because they are simpler, and because they are in common use in speech regarding the civil war.

The South had almost no navy in that war. So far as it did have one, it was creditable to the zeal and courage of those who fought in its war ships. What greater compliment can be paid to the South than to say that the men in its ships fought with true American bravery to the last?

New York, December 1, 1S9S.

Contents

THE CIVIL WAR.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. — The famous Monitor 1

Chapter I. The Famous Monitor

On tlie niglit of Friday, March 7, 1862, tliere was steaming south, along the Athmtic coast, between the capes of the Delaware and the capes of the Chesapeake, a vessel such as had never been seen on the seas before. That vessel was a war ship — the famous Monitor. There was a violent storm during the night, and that the boat did not sink was a great wonder. She was a curious vessel. She was simply a floating steam raft, with a round iron box upon it in the center and a square little hut, built something like a log house, in front of the box. The smokestack stuck up back of the round box, and near that was another pipe that looked something like a smokestack; it was used to supply fresh air to the crew down in the raft. The vessel had been built in less than four months. Long before she started from E'ew York harbor, where she was built, many persons declared that she would sink as soon as she got into rough water.

The Xortli and the South had been at war for nearly a year, and it was known that the South was preparing an ironclad vessel at ^^orfolk Avhich was expected to destroy the war ships of the North that had been stationed at Fort Monroe, just inside Chesapeake Bay, and only a few miles from J^orfolk. The use of ironclads in war at that time was new. European nation's were just beginning to build them, but they were of old-fashioned models. When it became known that the South was to have an ironclad, the North decided that it also must have one to save its ships from destruction, and to protect its large cities, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and its many seaport towns, from being placed at the mercy of a vessel which could not be sunk by any cannon balls of those days. Therefore the Monitor was built.

It was feared that the South would send some ships u]) the Potomac to try to capture Washington, and the ^Fonitor, before she was really finished or tried thoroughly, was sent south to go up the Chesapeake and the Potomac, to protect the national capital. She started out from Sandy Hook, in New York harbor, at eleven o'clock of the morning of Thursday, March 0, 1802. The weather was pleasant, the sea smooth, and to the surprise of nearly all on board, the new Avar ship got along very well. Slie was towed l)y a tugboat called the Seth Low, and was escorted by two small steamers. Thursday night all went well.

but on Friday morning the wind became stronger and drove the waves over the flat decks of the Monitor in such quantities as to alarm those inside the boat. The hatches over the openings in the decks leaked, and the water poured down into the vessel in great quantities. The waves broke against the little square house on the deck which was used as a pilot house, and the water ran in through the peep holes and several times drove the men at the wdieel away from their work of steering. The water also washed against the round box on top of the raft, in which were two guns on which the fate of the nation seemed to depend. The round box turned on a pivot, and was supposed to fit tightly to the deck. Where the deck and the box joined there had been packed a lot of oakum to keep the water from leaking through. This oakum was soon washed away, and the sea poured through the opening and down into the ship.

The vessel pitched and rolled, and when night came it seemed as if she would go down. The waves grew higher and higher, and now and then, when they broke on her decks, some of the water dashed down the smokestack, and soon the boiler fires were in danger of being put out. That meant, of course, that the ship would be unable to remain afloat, because she could not be steered and the water could engulf her easily.

But there was more trouble and danger in store for the brave men who had volunteered to take the Monitor to sea. The water broke over the pipe through which fresh air was drawn down into the ship, and this disabled the machinery that was used to control the air supply. The water was rising rapidly in the fire room, and there was no fresh air to make the fires burn brightly. Gas from the engines and furnaces was filling up the place so that it was dangerous to stay there. Two engineers rushed in to try to stop the leaks and they were overcome by gas, and had to be dragged out to save their lives. ^ The steam pumps were started, but the fires were so slow that steam could not be had to use for pumping. Hand pumps were then tried, but the water came in faster than the men could get it out. Then the men tried to bail out the boat, but this was also a failure, because the ship rolled and tossed, and the water from the buckets was spilled out before it could be passed up the ladders and emptied outside.

From the forward part of the ship there came dreadful noises throughout this long night. The deck of the Monitor stuck out a long distance froui the hull in front aud back, and under the extended front there was a hole made which was called the anchor well. The anchor was not carried in plain sight, as in these days, but was underneath the deck, and Avlu^n not in use it was ])Tdle(l u]) and fastened in this hole or well. As tlie Monitor fell with the wjives, a large quantity of air was caught in this well underneath the deck, and when it was compressed by the water as the Monitor plunged underneath, it made a mournful noise. Some of the crew said that it sounded like awful screams, and one of them said the noises were like " death groans of twenty men."

The men on the tugboat Seth Low could be of no help to those on the Monitor. As the noises continued through the night, and the ship plunged and rolled dreadfully, and as the Avater dashed about inside the hold, almost putting out the fires and making the place dangerous for the crew, it seemed as if those who declared that the strange craft would never stand a rough sea were right, and that the men who were willing to risk their lives in this vessel must surely be drowned. The wind was Avhat is called " off shore," and it was thought that if the tugboat could take the Monitor in toward the coast the water would be smoother and the vessel might live. This was done, and as the tugboat and the Monitor approached the shore it was found that the water was smoother. The wind then began to go down, but toward the morning it became stronger, and once more it seemed as if the ship -must be lost. This time the steering gear got out of order. All hands Avere summoned to fix it, and after working from two to three hours it was repaired, so that once more the ship could be steered properly.

e OUR NAVY IN TIME OF WAR.

When daylight came on Saturday, March 8, 1862, the sea had gone down, and the Monitor was ^vell along in her journey toward the Chesapeake. That was one of the most fortunate things for the United States that ever happened in its history, for although one can not tell what would have been the result had the Monitor been lost, it is known that she really saved the navy from destruction. About four o'clock in the afternoon, as the tugboat and the Monitor were going south, sounds of heavy cannonading were heard across the waters from the neighborhood of the capes of Chesapeake Bay. Soon a pilot came aboard and said that the South's great ironclad, the Merrimac, had come out that day and had gone up to the neighborhood of Fort Monroe, on the stretch of waters where the James River meets the Chesapeake, and which is called Hampton Roads. He said the Merrimac had destroyed two of the finest ships in the United States navy, had killed many men, and the next day, Sunday, March 9tli, she Avould probably finish up the four other ships of the North lying there.

It was not until nine o'clock on Saturday night that tlie ]\fonitor rcachcnl tlie United States vessels in Hampton Roads, and learned the result of that dreadful day's work. The men on board the Monitor began to ])re]^are at once for l^attle the next day. Tliey had had no slec]) since tliey had left New York, and very little food, and it was not known whether tlicir ship could do real fighting. The news of the loss of the Northern ships had spread all over the country. President Lincoln and his cabinet members were very much cast down when they met the next morning. So serious was the situation that Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, said:

" The Merrimac will change the whole course of the war; she will destroy every naval vessel; she will lay all the cities on the seaboard under contribution. I have no doubt that the enemy is this minute on her way to Washington, and it is not unlikely that we sliall have a shell or a cannon ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave the room."

But this was not to be. The Monitor was fighting, })robably at that very minute on that Sunday morning, and the South's great ironclad, the Merrimac, had met her match.

To understand the nature of the battle and what it meant, one should go back fully a year. One of the greatest navy yards in the United States was that at Xorfolk. Before the war started there were at this yard more than two thousand cannon, of which three hundred were splendid big guns, called Dahlgren guns. There were there more than one hundred and fifty tons of powder and a great lot of supplies for ships. The South wanted all these supplies. The State of Virginia had not \ot left the Fnion, although other States had. The commandant of the

N^orfolk Xavy Yard was Commodore McCaiiley. He was old and under tlie influence of Southern officers, who wanted to get control of the cannon and other articles to be used in war. Several United States war shijDS were there, including the steam frigate Merrimac, the sailing sloops of war Cumberland, Germantown, and Plymouth, the brig Dolphin, and six other sailing ships, including the famous United States, all of which were not of much use. ^NTevertheless, the value of the ships and stores was estimated at fully five million dollars.

The ;N"avy Department became very anxious over the property there, and it was decided to try to get the frigate Merrimac away from the yard. The machinery of the vessel was put in order, steam was raised, and the ship was ready finally to sail away, but Commodore McCauley decided to hold the vessel until the next morning. This was in the latter part of April, 1861. The next morning he decided to hold the vessel a little longer, because he did not want to offend the people of Virginia by sending the ship away. Then there arrived from Washington the steamer Pawnee, under Captain Paulding, with a regiment of Massachusetts soldiers on board. Paulding had orders to take the Merrimac and other ships away from the yard if he could, and if he could not, to destroy the ships and as much of tlie ])rop(M"ty as he could. Southern troops had been forming about IN'orfolk as if about to attack, and there was notliiug to be done except to destroy the ships and property. The Pawnee did manage to tow the Cumberhmd away from the yard. One evening was spent in preparations to destroy the ships and buiklings. Commodore McCauley went to bed ignorant of the attempt that was to be made. He thought the Pawnee had come there to protect the place. A little after fonr o'clock in the morning the signal was fired, and in a few minutes the ships and other property were in flames. The dry dock was not destroyed, because the fuse did not light the powder that had been placed in it. The magazine Avith its shells and powder had already been seized by the Southern men, and in the hurry of setting fire to the }'ard and of getting away there was little burned beyond the ships and several buildings.

The vast stores passed into the hands of the South. The Merrimac and other vessels burned to the water's edge and sunk. It was found afterward that the engines of the Merrimac were not damaged seriously, and it was because of that fact that the South and Xorth met in the first battle between ironclads with the Monitor on one side and the Merrimac on the other, on March 9, 1862, nearly a year later. The South had a very able naval oflicer, named John M. Brooke, Avho was formerly a lieutenant in the United States navy. He was ordered to prepare plans for an ironclad. The South had verv little iron and few factories, and it was a hard task to build sucli a vessel. The wreck of the Merrimac was raised, and it was found that the engines were uninjured. That was a piece of good fortune for the South. Its men built on the hull of the ship a sort of house, with sloping sides of pine and oak, two feet thick. Iron plating, four inches thick, covered the outside. There was a plating of iron one inch thick along the hull, on which this deck house rested. This iron plating extended two feet below the surface of the water. There Avere windows in the deck house through which the vessel's ten guns could fire. Six of these guns were nine-inch Dahlgrens, and four were rifles designed by Lieutenant Brooke, which were said to be the best guns known at that time.

The Merrimac drew twenty-two feet of water, had a crew of three hundred and twenty men, and was very hard to steer. The Southerners called her the Virginia, but the name Merrimac always clung to her. The work of making her into an ironclad began in June, 18(31. At this time the Xorth had done nothing about l)uil(ling an iron war ship. In August Congress set aside fifteen hundred thousand dollars for this work. It was not until September 8th that a decision was made as to what to do with this money. A board of naval officers decided that three shi])s should be built, and one of them should be an ironclad with a revolving turret, according to a design

THE FAMOUS MONITOR. H

suggested by John Ericsson, a noted Swedish inventor, who had come to this country to live. It was not until October 4, 1861, that the contract for the Monitor was made. She was to be called the Monitor to warn the South that she was to be dreaded, and also to give notice to England that her navy was really out of date, and that a great change was about to take place in war ships.

Three gangs of men worked eight hours a day each on the ship, and she was launched on January 30, 1862. The hull was one hundred and twenty-four feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and twelve feet deep, and over the hull was laid a superstructure which extended beyond and made a vessel one hundred and seventy-two feet long and forty-one and a half feet wide. The deck stuck out over the hull as the deck of a ferryboat does in these days. The deck was to be only one foot above the water line. In the center of the ship rose the turret. It was nine feet high, twenty feet in diameter, and eight inches thick. The thickness was made up of eight one-inch iron plates. Inside were two eleven-inch smooth-bore guns. There were iron shutters for the portholes to keep out shot while the guns were being loaded. There was a thickness of five inches of iron along the sides of the low deck. The smokestack was arranged to be taken down while the vessel was in action. In the front

of the ship was the square pilot house, with scarcely 3 room enough for three men to stand in it. The guns could not be shot in the direction of the pilot house, because the shells would kill those inside and sweep it away. There was only a speaking-tube connection between the pilot house and the turret.

"Word reached the Xorth that the Merrimac was nearly done, and on February 19th the Monitor was sent hurriedly from the place in Greenpoint where she was built to the Brooklyn I^avy Yard; a week later she was put into commission and tried in the East Kiver. Her steering gear was out of order, however, and it was not known whether she would be a success. After another week the vessel went as far as Sandy Hook under her own steam. Then came orders to hurry her South, and on Thursday, March 6th, as has been told, she started on her perilous journey. The Monitor was under command of Lieutenant John Worden, who had done some notable work at Pensacola earlier in the war, and had been imprisoned at Montgomery, Ala., because of it. He was really sick when he volunteered and was selected to command the Monitor. Lieutenant S. Dana Greene volunteered to go with him as executive officer. Assistant-Engineer Isaac Newton w^as at the head of the four engineers, and Chief-Engineer A. C. Stimers was sent along to watch the machinery and to make a report about it. The crew consisted of fifty-eight men.

THE FAMOUS MONITOR.

Meanwhile the Southern men at Norfolk were hurrying up the Merrimac. When she started out from ^N'orfolk on the morning of March 8, 1862, the workmen were still busy on her, and some of them were put ashore after the vessel had got in motion. She was under the command of Captain Franklin Buchanan, formerly of the United States navy, and a very brave man. She had a green crew on her, and had never stGaincd a mile after being fixed over, and few of the officers had ever met one another. She could go only about four knots an hour, and when she started down the river from Norfolk to Hampton Roads on that Saturday morning to destroy the Northern fleet, there was very little fear on those ships that anything serious Avould happen. At anchor in Hampton Roads near each other and off Newport News Avere the frigate Congress, which carried fifty guns, and the sloop of war Cumberland, carrying twenty-four guns, which the Pawnee had saved from the Norfolk Navy Yard nearly a year before. Farther down Ham})ton Roads, toward Fort Monroe on the Chesapeake Bay, were the old frigate St. Lawrence and the two modern steam frigates, Roanoke and Minnesota, former sister ships to the Merrimac. The Northern officers had begun to think the Merrimac Avas a failure, and when some one saAV the smoke coming doAvn the river, he cried out:

" Here comes that thing! "

It Avas a beautiful morning, and as the Merrimac, escorted by several small gunboats, came out in Hampton Roads, all the Northern ships cleared for action and made preparations for a fight. The Congress and Cumberland were sailing ships and remained anchored. The Merrimac came on sloAAdy and steadily, and about one o'clock in the afternoon the Congress and the Cumberland began to shoot at her at long range. The ^Northern batteries on shore also took partj but it was seen that the shells did no damage whatever, and sinij)ly glanced off the sides of this new monster of war. AYlien the Merrimac was very close to the two ships, the bow port of the Merrimac was opened and she fired at the Cumberland. The shot killed or wounded most of the crew at one of the Cumberland's guns near the stern. Then the Merrimac started for the Congress. Captain Buchanan, of the Merrimac, had a brother who was paymaster on the Congress, but that made no difference in the captain's desire to sink the Congress. He fired a broadside into her which did great damage, killing a large number of men. Then the Merrimac made for the Cumberland, so as to sink her by rannning. The men on the Congress, thinking that the Merrimac had been afraid to attack them further, sprang into the rigging and cheered as the ironclad seemed to run away ; but it was the wrong time to cheer. The Cumberland shot at the Merrimac in vain. The Merrimac struck the Cumberland a terrific blow in the forward part of the ship, after which the Merrimac backed off, leaving part of her prow sticking in the Cumberland. The Cumberland tipped far over and then righted herself, but the blow was mortal. Water rushed in the open sides of the ship and she was doomed. The brave crew kept fighting desperately. Every time the ^lerrimac fired into her a dozen or more of the men at the guns would be killed. The Merrmiac steamed up close beside her again, and her officers called upon Lieutenant George W. Morris, who was in command of the Cumberland on that day, in the absence of Captain Eadford, to surrender and save a great loss of life. Morris replied:

"Xever! Til sink alongside.''

Ammunition was brought up to the dry places on deck, the wounded were brought up also, and as the ship sank slowly the men kicked off their shoes, threw away their extra clothing, and fired the cannon until the water fairly engulfed them all. Xot until it was seen that the ship would go down within five minutes did some of those who had survived in the fight take to the boats, dragging the wounded with them.

There were three hundred and seventy-six men on board of the Cumberland when that fight began, and of those one hundred and seventeen were lost and twenty-three were missing. After the vessel went down her masts stuck above the water, and the old flag floated in plain sight.

Buchanan then turned again toward the Congress. Lieutenant Joseph B. Smitli Avas in command of that vessel. lie saw the fate of the Cumberland, and he ran his boat aground so that the Merrimac could not ram her. The Merrimac came within two hundred yards of the stern of the Congress, where broadside after broadside was poured into her, to vvdiich the stranded ship could reply witli only two small guns. Soon Lieutenant Smith was killed. Every time a shot from the Merrimac struck the vessel there was awful slaughter. After keeping up the fight for more than an hour, Lieutenant Pendergrast, who was then in command, hoisted a white flag and surrendered. Some of the batteries on the shore fired on the Southern men wlio were taking charge of the vessel after the surrender. It was a violation of the rules of war, but it was done through a mistake. The Merrimac replied by recalling her men and by firing hot shot into the Congress, setting her on fire. Captain Buchanan, of the Merrimac, was wounded by a rifie ball from shore just before this occurred.

While the fights between the Merrimac and the Cumberland and the Congress were going on, the other Xorthern vessels, the Minnesota, Roanoke, and St. Lawrence, had tried to go to the aid of the two Northern ships, but they all ran aground. It was five o'clock in the afternoon when the Congress was set afire, the tide was running low, and it was seen that it would be impossible for the Merrimac to do much more work that day. She turned away and went to the mouth. of the river leading to Norfolk, satisfied with the day's work, and willing to leave the task of finishing u]) the other vessels at her leisure the next day. Two of her men had been killed by a shot that had entered a porthole, and eight had been wounded. The

Congress had had one hundred and thirty killed out of her erew of four hundred and thirty-four men. Altogether the loss of the North was two hundred and fifty men killed and drowned, in addition to the two ships, Cumberland and Congress.

The Congress burned far into the night, and the flames lit up the harbor as the little Monitor, which was called " a cheese box on a raft," steamed in. AYorden, the commander of the Monitor, went to the Roanoke to ask what he should do the next day — ■ whether to go to Washington, according to orders, or to stay and fight the Merrimac. Flag-Offlcer Marston told him to stay and fight, and disobey his orders. It was most fortunate that he did stay. That night was probably the darkest night for the North of the entire civil war. The next day, when the Secretary of the Xavy, Mr. Gideon Welles, went to church, he met Captain Joseph Smith, the father of Lieutenant Smith, who had been killed on the Congress. Mr. AVelles told Captain Smith that the Congress had been lost. Captain Smith replied:

" Then Joe is dead."

'Hie Secretary of the Navy said that no list of the killed and wounded had arrived, and he hoped that Lieutenant Smith was safe.

Captain Smith replied:

" Oh no, you don't know Joe as I know him; he never would surrender his ship."

Chapter II. First Fight Between Ironclads

Bright and early on Sunday morning, March 9, 1862, tlie Merrimac was ready to finish np the work of destroying the l^orthern fleet. Lieutenant Catesby Jones was now in command of the vesseL The night before he and his men had seen the Monitor steam np beside the Minnesota and anchor. They were not ahirmed at the appearance of the E^orth's ironclad, for snch they knew it to be. At half past seven o'clock in the morning the Merrimac started out on her day's work. Her commander intended to ignore the Monitor, and he fired his first shot at the Minnesota, doing some damage to her. The Monitor began to move as soon as the Merrimac was seen coming out to renew the fight. Lieutenant Worden was in the pilot house, and Greene and Stimers with sixteen men were in the turret. The Monitor ran straight in front of the Merrimac, and the Merrimac fired one of her seven-inch guns, but the Monitor was so low in the water and the turret and pilot house were so small that

the Monitor was not hit. The Monitor kept going

Map of Churleston harbor and vicinity.

closer, and when very near the Merrimac fired her two eleven-inch guns. The cannon balls struck the Merrimac on the sloping deck house and glanced off, doing no harm. Then the Merrimac turned her side to the Monitor and fired a broadside against her. This time some of the cannon balls struck the turret.

Right there occurred the great test of the Monitor. The men inside the turret heard the balls smash against it, and to their great relief found that no damage was done. At once their spirits rose. There was not a spare man in the crew. When they saw that the turret would turn, they felt not only safe, but believed they would win the fight. The Merrimac poured shot after shot at the Monitor, most of which passed over her, but many of which struck her. Nearly every shot that the Monitor fired seemed to hit the Merrimac, but they did little damage. The Monitor fired solid shot, and the Merrimac fired shells. It is agreed now^ that had the Merrimac fired solid shot, or had the Monitor used more powder in her guns, each of the vessels might have been damaged a great deal. The Monitor could fire about once in seven minutes; the Merrimac could fire only once in about fifteen minutes.