Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/308

304 before, and steamed out to meet the Virginia. It was known that the Monitor's guns were heavier than ours. A desperate battle, of some three hours, was fought between these leviathans of marine war, at the expiration of which the "Monitor" withdrew from the conflict, and sought safety in shoal waters, where, from her greater draught, the "Virginia" could not follow. The "Virginia" steamed about, daring her to renew the conflict, but she declined. The Confederate iron-clad went up the Elizabeth River, and was docked, and her prow, injured in sinking the Cumberland, was replaced. When this was done, under the gallant Commodore Josiah Tatnall, who was appointed to command, she steamed down to Hampton Roads, and found the "Monitor" and a heavy Federal fleet bombarding a Confederate battery on Sewall's Point. Tatnall shaped his course for them, and they all, the "Monitor" included, ran for protection under the guns of Fortress Monroe and quietly remained there while Tatnall sent two of his consorts in and captured two Federal supply vessels and towed them to Norfolk, amid cheers from the foreign warships in view of this desperate courage.

The "Monitor" could never be induced to fight her victorious adversary again, and had no instrumentality in the "Virginia's" subsequent destruction above Craney Island, by her officers, when Norfolk was evacuated. From this first battle between iron-clad vessels in the world's history, arose the entire revolution in the navies of the whole world.

Again, my comrades and friends, as spokesman of the Pickett-Buchanan Camp of Confederate Veterans, I extend to you a most heartfelt and cordial welcome; a welcome which is also extended to your wives, who have been with you through all the vicissitudes of life; by sympathy, encouraging you, and by their counsels, aiding you in all the trials through which you have passed; and also, to your children, who, trained and encouraged by your noble lives, will be qualified to emulate your illustrious example. Too much can never be said, in praise, of the fortitude and loyalty, in War and Peace, of our Southern women, the purest, the best and noblest of God's creation. May God bless us, my comrades, and make us worthy of their love and their confidence.