hand, and an iron battery
from the shore. We were striving to ram the Ericsson, but we could not
get close to her; our iron beak, too, was sticking in the side of the
sunken Cumberland--we could only ram with the blunt prow. The Minnesota,
as we passed, gave us all her broadside guns--a tremendous fusillade at
point-blank range, which would have sunk any ship of the swan breed. The
turtle shook off shot and shell, grape and canister, and answered with
her bow gun. The shell which it threw entered the side of the frigate,
and, bursting amidship, exploded a store of powder and set the ship on
fire. Leaving disaster aboard the Minnesota, we turned and sunk the
tugboat Dragon. Then came manoeuvre and manoeuvre to gain position
where we could ram the Monitor....

"We got it at last. The engines made an effort like the leap of the
spirit before expiring. 'Go ahead! Full speed!' We went; we bore down
upon the Monitor, now in deeper water. But at the moment that we saw
victory she turned. Our bow, lacking the iron beak, gave but a glancing
stroke. It was heavy as it was; the Monitor shook like a man with the
ague, but she did not share the fate of the Cumberland. There was no
ragged hole in her side; her armour was good, and held. She backed,
gathered herself together, then rushed forward, striving to ram us in
her turn. But our armour, too, was good, and held. Then she came upon
the Merrimac's quarter, laid her bow against the shell, and fired her
11-inch guns twice in succession. We were so close, each to the other,
that it was as though two duelists were standing upon the same cloak.
Frightful enough was the concussion of those guns.

"That charge drove in the Merrimac's iron side three inches or more. The
shots struck above the ports of the after guns, and every man at those
guns was knocked down by the impact and bled at the nose and ears. The
Monitor dropped astern, and again we turned and tried to ram her. But
her far lighter draught put her where we could not go; our bow, too, was
now twisted and splintered. Our powder was getting low. We did not spare
it, we could not; we sent shot and shell continuously against the
Monitor, and she answered in kind. Monitor and Merrimac, we went now
this way, now that, the Ericsson much the lighter and quickest, the
Merrimac fettered by her poor old engines, and her great length, and her
twenty-three feet draught. It was two o'clock in the afternoon.... The
duelists stepped from off