he _Merrimac_ coming toward her, and, starting out, began
the greatest naval battle of modern times. When it ended, neither ship
was disabled; but they were the masters of the seas, for it was now
proved that no wooden ships anywhere afloat could harm them. The days of
wooden naval vessels were over, and all the nations of the world were
forced to build their navies anew. The _Merrimac_ withdrew from the
fight; when the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, they destroyed her (May,
1862). The _Monitor_ sank in a storm at sea while going to Beaufort,
N.C. (January, 1863).[1]

[Footnote 1: _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I., pp.
719-750.]

[Illustration: %An encounter at close range%]

%463. Capture of the Coast Forts and Waterways.%--Operations along
the coast were begun in August, 1861, by the capture of the forts at the
mouth of Hatteras Inlet, N.C., the entrance to Pamlico Sound; and by the
capture of Port Royal in November. A few months later (early in 1862)
control of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds was secured by the capture of
Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, and Newbern, all in North Carolina, and
of Fort Macon, which guarded the entrance to Beaufort harbor.
McClellan's capture of Yorktown in May, 1862, was soon followed by the
hasty evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces, so that at the
end of the first year of the war most of the seacoast from Norfolk to
the Gulf was in Union hands.

Along the Gulf coast naval operations resulted in opening the lower
Mississippi and capturing New Orleans in April, and Pensacola in
May, 1862.

In April, 1863, a naval attack on Charleston was planned, but was
carried no farther than a severe battering of Fort Sumter. In August,
1864, Admiral Farragut led his fleet past Forts Morgan and Gaines, that
guarded the entrance of Mobile Bay, captured the Confederate fleet and
took the forts. Mobile, however, was not taken till April, 1865, just as
the Confederacy reached its end. Fort Fisher, which commanded the
entrance to Cape Fear River, on which stood Wilmington, the great port
of entry for blockade runners, fell before the attack of a combined land
and naval force in January, 1865.

SUMMARY

1. The naval operations of the war opened with the blockade of the coast
of the Confederate States.

2. This was necessary in order to prevent cotton, sugar, and tobacco
being sent abroad in return for materials of war.

3. As a result blockade running was carried on to