Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/56

46 day, March 9th, with the signal for "close action," the Minnesota would have been destroyed beyond a doubt. On the night of the 8th, the Confederate squadron remained at anchor off Sewell's point. Commodore Buchanan and his flag lieutenant, Robert Minor, were removed to the hospital on shore. The remainder of the wounded received the attention of Surgs. Dinwiddie Phillips, John Mason, Randolph Mason and Algernon Garnett. These gentlemen had belonged to the medical corps of the old navy, a corps of educated, courteous gentlemen which can, perhaps, be equaled, but never excelled.

"About 11 p. m.," as Commander Jones narrates, "one of the pilots [of the Merrimac] chanced to be looking in the direction of the Congress, when there passed a strange looking craft which he at once proclaimed to be the Ericsson [Monitor]. We were therefore not surprised to see the Monitor next morning at anchor near the Minnesota."