Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/241

Rh Thus far the Federal advances are seen to have been made with great vigor in the West and on the coast, but on the eastern side of the widely spread battlefield, where the Confederacy was fighting for life, the Federal operations were not so rapid nor so successful. The Confederates were permitted to occupy and use the navy yard at Norfolk, and not only raise the Merrimac, which the Federals sank when they abandoned Norfolk in April, 1861, but to change it into a dangerous ironclad. On the morning of March 8, 1862, this novel vessel, rebuilt by Southern ingenuity upon a novel plan and named the Virginia, steamed away to attack the Federal war vessels lying in Hampton Roads. In the fight which followed between the Virginia and the United States vessels the entire Federal fleet was scattered except the Cumberland, which was sunk, the Congress burned, and the Minnesota run aground. During the night after this battle the Monitor, a new Federal ironclad, also just completed, came into the roads, and taking position between the Minnesota and the Virginia, received next day the blows of the Confederate vessels without being harmed, and returned dangerous shots from its revolving iron turrets. This duel of the ironclads, although nearly harmless to either, aroused the attention of both nations to the value of this class of boats, and the opportune arrival of the Monitor probably protected the ships of the enemy from destruction.

General McClellan gave the Confederate government time during the fall and winter after the battle of Manassas to enlarge the army and navy and increase the strength of the fortifications around Richmond. His antagonist, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, with an army very much inferior in numbers, covered Washington for months, awaiting the renewal of the invasion. On the 10th of March, McClellan's armies began to move toward Richmond, and the Confederates were withdrawn from