. In order to prevent the helpless wounded on the berth
deck from being drowned, they were lifted up on racks and mess chests,
and as the ship settled more and more they were removed from this
temporary refuge and carried on deck and placed amidship. This was all
that their shipmates could do for them, and when the ship finally went
down they perished in her."

After sinking the "Cumberland," the "Merrimac" again turned on the
"Congress" with her entire broadside and, owing to her own impervious
character, soon got the Federal ship into such condition,
notwithstanding the heroic defence of her men under Lieutenant Smith,
who soon was killed, that she had to surrender, and thereafter caught
fire from the hot shot of the enemy and was destroyed. The "Merrimac,"
now under the command of Lieutenant Jones, a rifle ball having struck
both Commodore Buchanan and Flag-Lieutenant Minor, not yet satisfied
with the destruction which she had wrought, then turned her attention to
the remaining Federal ships, the "Minnesota," "St. Lawrence" and
"Roanoke," and after having, with the assistance of some accompanying
Confederate gunboats, played havoc especially with the "Minnesota,"
about seven o'clock in the evening, owing to the ebbing tide, turned her
head towards Sewell's Point, where she anchored for the night, with the
intention of renewing her dread work on the following morning, after one
of the most disastrous days in the history of the Federal navy.

In selecting the destruction of the "Cumberland" by the "Merrimac" as
the subject of this painting, the artist showed his usual good judgment.
It was one of the earliest as well as most startling incidents of the
entire war, and in its effect in revolutionizing the construction not
only of our ships, but those of the world, easily holds first place in
all naval history. The picture is wonderfully painted and dramatically
handled and is considered by some critics the most interesting of the
series.

The huge, truncated bulk of the Confederate ram is shown in the act of
plunging her prow through the wooden hull of her opponent in the teeth
of a broadside of fire and shell. The contrast of colors and values is
forcibly expressed; the black soft coal smoke from the single stack of
the "Merrimac" drifts forward and envelopes her antagonist as the
cuttle-fish darkens the water that it may more easily destroy its
victim.

An examination of this painting is its best description. It is