Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/62

52 Monitor (in consequence of the Merrimac's leaving for Norfolk), for she remained on the field and saved the Minnesota. The Merrimac should undoubtedly have destroyed that ship before leaving the roads. It was a lost opportunity, for the Monitor when she withdrew was a whipped ship.

In support of this assertion may be cited the following: 1. The omission of the name of Lieut. Dana Greene, who succeeded to the command of the Monitor after Captain Worden was wounded, from the official report of his captain. 2. The report of Captain Van Brunt, of the Minnesota, who distinctly says, "The Monitor stood down for Fortress Monroe." 3. The shameful letter of Ericsson to Captain Fox in relation to Greene. 4. The panic pervading the Northern cities, incited by the secretary of war, Mr. Stanton, who actually ordered the Potomac river to be obstructed fifty miles below Washington. 5. The suggestion of President Lincoln to "obstruct the Elizabeth river, to keep the Merrimac from coming out." 6. The rejection of Captain Wor den's claim for prize money by the naval committee of Congress in 1883. 7. The earnest request of General McClellan that the Merrimac should be neutralized. 8. The employment of the steamer Vanderbilt to ram and destroy the Merrimac, what the Monitor had failed to do. 9. The fact that the Monitor declined to engage the Merrimac on the nth day of April, 1862. 10. The further fact that the Monitor ran away from the Merrimac on the 8th day of May, 1862.

No further proofs are required. The Monitor was a whipped ship on the 9th of March, the only day she dared encounter the Merrimac; and what is more, the defeat was generally conceded by the United States authorities at that time. The claim of a victory for the Monitor was an afterthought, and only asserted when the Merrimac had been destroyed by her own commander.

The destruction of the Merrimac by her commander on