LES."

The President followed this up with a special message to Congress on
December 8, 1862, as follows:

"_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

"In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially
recommend that Commander John L. Worden, United States Navy,
receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the eminent skill and
gallantry exhibited by him in the late remarkable battle between
the United States iron-clad steamer 'Monitor,' under his command,
and the rebel iron-clad steamer 'Merrimac,' in March last.

"The thanks of Congress for his services on the occasion referred
to were tendered by a resolution approved July 11, 1862, but the
recommendation is now specially made in order to comply with the
requirements of the ninth section of the act of July 16, 1862,
which is in the following words, viz.:

"'That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced
one grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he
receives the thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in
conflict with the enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of
his profession.'

"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

In this fight the "Monitor" had been struck twenty-two times without
appreciable effect, the deepest indentation having been made by a shot
that penetrated the iron on her side to the depth of four inches. On the
"Merrimac" ninety-seven indentations of shot were found, twenty of which
were from the 11-inch guns of the "Monitor," which had shattered six of
the top layers of her iron plates.

On the 29th of December following, the "Monitor" herself was lost,
having been foundered and sunk with sixteen of her crew, in a heavy
gale, a few miles south of Cape Hatteras. But the test to which the
"Monitor" had been subjected in her battle with the "Merrimac" proved
beyond doubt that iron was destined to take the place of wood in the
construction of our men-of-war thereafter, and the confidence of John
Ericsson in the ultimate success of his experiment, after many
discouragements and rebuffs on the part of the naval authorities, was
fully justified in its final results, and the honors which the nation
showered upon him in the evening of his life, and the tribute which it
paid to his genius after his death, were merited by him quite as much as
the perpetuation of his memory through this