Not until she was
quite near the Cumberland did the Merrimac return the fire. Then she
opened her bow-port and sent a seven-inch shell through the Cumberland's
quarter. The Cumberland answered with a broadside which would have blown
any wooden vessel out of the water, but which affected the Merrimac not
at all. Buchanan had determined to test the power of his ram, and
keeping on at full speed, crashed into the Cumberland's side. Then he
backed out, leaving a yawning chasm, through which the water poured into
the doomed ship. She settled rapidly and sank with a roar, her crew
firing her guns to the last moment.
The Merrimac then turned her attention to the Congress, with such deadly
effect that that vessel was forced to surrender after an hour's
fighting, in which she was repeatedly hulled and set on fire. Most of
her crew escaped to the shore, and the Confederates completed her
destruction by firing hot shot into her. Evening was at hand by this
time, and the Merrimac withdrew, intending to destroy the other ships in
the harbor next morning.
So ended the most disastrous day in the history of the United States
navy. Two ships were lost, and over three hundred men killed or wounded.
On the Merrimac, two had been killed and eight wounded, but the vessel
herself, though she had been the target for more than a hundred heavy
guns, was practically uninjured and as dangerous as ever.
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