Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/592

 660 Both sides build ironclads. [1861-2 down the river being too dangerous to be attempted with his small force. The operations against Grand Gulf and Vicksburg are narrated else- where. It is enough to say that with the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, the Mississippi was lost to the Confederacy. With its loss began that shortage of food throughout the Southern States which, even with- out the great military catastrophe culminating in Appomattox, must have brought down the Secession movement when the blockade cut off the South from all foreign sources of supply. There was continual fighting between the flotilla on the river and Confederate guerrillas upon the banks, down to the close of the war ; but these operations possess little interest. So firmly was the river held that, in General Early's words, it became impossible to move foodstuffs across it. At the same time the States of Texas and Arkansas were left isolated and exposed to attack. One or two serious attempts were made by Confederate vessels to inter- fere with this process of isolating the South from the rest of the world. In July, 1861, the Confederates had begun the building of an iron-plated superstructure on the hull of the frigate Merrimac, which had been burnt and sunk at Norfolk navy-yard; and about the same time the Federals began to construct the turret-ship Monitor. The Merrimac was completed in March, 1862. She was plated above the water with two layers of iron armour, rolled from rails, with a combined thickness of four inches, superposed upon a massive structure of timber. A ram of cast-iron was fitted to the bow ; and inside the armoured pent-house, which had sloping sides and ends, were mounted four rifled and six smooth-bore guns of heavy calibre. No solid shot for piercing armour was supplied for the guns, but this was not thought to be a defect, as the only vessels off the port of Norfolk, in which the Merrimac was building, were wooden ships of the old type, vulnerable to shell-fire. The Northern ships were five in number and mounted between them 222 guns ; but, as against an armoured ship, they might as well have been armed with toy-pistols. The rapid completion of the Southern ironclad was known to the North, and led to every nerve being strained to get the Monitor to sea. The Monitor differed greatly in design from the Merrimac. She was described by the Southern officers as resembling a " tin can on a raft " ; and the comparison was accurate. When in fighting trim she showed nothing above water but a low hull, well protected by armour, a circular turret plated with iron and mounting inside it two heavy smooth-bore guns, and a low conning-tower, placed in the fore-part of the ship and strongly armoured. The funnels, two in number, were removed in battle. There was no unarmoured target for an enemy's guns; and even the armoured target was small. But against this advantage was to be set the sacrifice of seaworthiness and comfort ; the vessel was essentially one for coast-service only, and a voyage in even a moderate