The loss.
The loss in the
Cumberland is reported by Federal account at one hundred and twenty-one killed and drowned; in the
Congress, one hundred and twenty-five killed, wounded, and missing. No report is made of the
Minnesota, though she, too, had some killed and wounded.
In the Confederate fleet we had some forty-five killed and wounded, the larger number of killed being on our wooden vessels.
Exhausted with the nervous strain of the day, we slept soundly that night, anticipating a similar career of victory for the morrow.
The Monitor (or
Ericsson) had been built in one hundred days especially to meet the
Merrimac.
She arrived at
Fort Monroe at 9 P. M. of March 8th.
Secretary Welles had telegraphed
Commodore Paulding at the
New York yard March 6th: βLet the
Monitor come direct to
Washington, anchoring below
Alexandria.β
Similar orders had been sent to
Captain John Marston, United States Navy, at
Fort Monroe.
Marston took upon himself the responsibility of disobeying, and kept the
Monitor in
Hampton Roads.
Had
Secretary Welles' order been obeyed, the
Merrimac on the 9th would have captured not only the
Minnesota, St. Lawrence and
Roanoke, but every vessel that remained inside of
Fortress Monroe.
In the engagement of the 8th the
Merrimac had lost her prow in striking the
Cumberland, two of her guns had been disabled, so as to be useless, by shot from the
Cumberland, and her smoke-stack and steam-pipe had been so riddled that it was difficult to keep up sufficient steam.
In this plight she was to meet her antagonist.
At daylight on the 9th we discovered that the frigates
Roanoke and
St. Lawrence had been floated and moved to
Old Point, but the
Minnesota was yet aground in the same position.
Near her we discovered an object like a raft, floating low in the water, with smoke-stack and turret amidships.
