[Footnote 2: So called by Ericsson because it would "admonish"
the South, and also suggest to England "doubts as to the propriety
of completing four steel-clad ships at three and one-half millions
apiece."]

The South in fact won the race in construction and got its ship
first into action by a margin of just half a day. At noon on March
8, with the iron-workers still driving her last rivets, the _Merrimac_
steamed out of Norfolk and advanced ponderously upon the three sail
and two steam vessels then anchored in Hampton Roads.

In the Northern navy there had been much skepticism about the ironclad
and no concerted plan to meet her attack. Under a rain of fire
from the Union ships, and from share fortifications too distant
to be effective, the _Merrimac_ rammed and sank the sloop-of-war
_Cumberland_, and then, after driving the frigate _Congress_ aground,
riddled her with shells. Towards nightfall the Confederate vessel
moved dawn stream, to continue the slaughter next day.

About 12 o'clock that night, after two days of terrible buffeting
on the voyage down the coast, the little _Monitor_ anchored on
the scene lighted up by the burning wreck of the _Congress_. The
first battle of ironclads began next morning at 8:30 and continued
with slight intermission till noon. It ended in a triumph, not
for either ship, but for armor over guns. The _Monitor_ fired 41
solid shot, 20 of which struck home, but merely cracked some of
the _Merrimac's_ outer plates. The _Monitor_ was hit 22 times by
enemy shells. Neither craft was seriously harmed and not a man was
killed on either side, though several were stunned or otherwise
injured. Lieut. Worden, in command of the _Monitor_, was nearly
blinded by a shell that smashed in the pilot house, a square iron
structure then located not above the turret but on the forward
deck.

The drawn battle was hailed as a Northern victory. Imagination
had been drawing dire pictures of what the _Merrimac_ might do. At
a Cabinet meeting in Washington Sunday morning, March 9, Secretary
of War Stanton declared: "The _Merrimac_ will change the course of
the war; she will destroy _seriatim_ every naval vessel; she will
lay all the cities on the seaboard under contribution. I have no
doubt that the enemy is at this minute on the way to Washington, and
that we shall have a shell from one of her guns in the White House
before we leave this room." The menace was somewhat exaggerated. With
her submerged de