Merrimac and Monitor; William and Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, P. 132

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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Merrimac and Monitor

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers, Vol. 2, No. 2.
(Oct., 1893), p. 132.

                       MERRIMAC AND MONITOR.

            Extract from the paper of Virginius Newton,
        late midshipman C. S. Navy, published in "Southern
        Historical Society Papers," Vol. XX.

                          "SUMMING UP.

   1.  On the 9th of March, the only occasion upon which the Merrimac
and Monitor did engage, it is in evidence from Federal official sources
that the Monitor twice retired from the engagement of the day; the
Merrimac only retired when the action was supposed to be concluded.

   2.  On April 11th, the Merrimac, in the presence of two French and
one English war vessel, offered the Monitor and the Stevens iron
battery battle.  Then, to provoke them to accept it, cut out three
Federal transports almost under their guns, but without bringing them
to issue.

   3.  On May 8th, the Merrimac drove the Monitor, Naugatuck, and six
other Unites States war vessels from Sewell's Point to within one and
a half miles of Fort Monroe, and seeing no dispositon to engage returned
to anchor.  On this occasion, the Federal fleet declined the action,
says Commodore Goldsborough, United States Navy, 'because the Merrimac
did not place herself in deep water, nor in a position of advantage,'
to be attacked by the Monitor, Naugatick, Minnesota, Illinois, San
Jacinto, and to be run down by the Baltimore, Arajo, Vanderbilt, and 
all other vessels that might be on hand to coach the Monitor.  The
Merrimac drew twenty-three feet of water, and with the exception of

the Minnisota, there was no vessel in the Federal fleet that drew as
much as fifteen feet.  Moreover, they claimed the superiority of the
Monitor over the Merrimac -- a fact we admitted then, and admit now.
Comment is unnecessary."