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make a serious attack on the fort, his object being merely to ascertain the strength of the works and the possibility of effecting a landing of the troops.
The Monitor had orders to fall back into fair channel way, and only engage the Merrimac seriously in such a position that the Minnesota and the other vessels could run her down, if an opportunity presented itself.
According to Goldsborough, ‘the Merrimac came out, but was even more cautious than ever.
The Monitor was kept well in advance, and so that the Merrimac could have engaged her without difficulty had she been so disposed; but she declined to do it, and soon returned and anchored under Sewall's Point.’1
On the 10th, Tattnall learned that the fort at Sewall's Point had been abandoned, and that the United States troops, having landed at Ocean View, were rapidly advancing on Norfolk.
By the evening Norfolk had surrendered, and he resolved to withdraw to the James River.
The pilots informed him that they could take the ship up with a draft of eighteen feet. The Merrimac drew twenty-two feet, and preparations were made to lighten her. After working half the night, and stripping the ship so that she was unfit for action, the pilots, apparently not wishing to go out, declared that it would be impossible to take her up as far as Jamestown Flats, the point to which McClellan's army was supposed to have occupied the river.
Tattnall thereupon concluded to destroy his
1 It is impossible to reconcile the statements of the two opposing commanders, in regard to the events of this day. Tattnall says: ‘We passed the battery and stood directly for the enemy for the purpose of engaging him, and I thought an action certain, particularly as the Minnesota and Vanderbilt, which were anchored below Fortress Monroe, got under way and stood up to that point, apparently with the intention of joining their squadron in the roads. Before, however, we got within gunshot, the enemy ceased firing and retired with all speed under the protection of the guns of the Fortress, followed by the Virginia, until the shells from the Rip Raps passed over her. The Virginia was then placed at her moorings near Sewall's Point.’
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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