by Avi
It was amazing how many people watched the battle from both shores.
He poked his head up into the pilothouse to survey the damage. It had been just one shot, a shell that had exploded right up against the bars. One iron brace had been shattered. That was the explosion that had wounded the captain.
Mr. Greene peered through the pilothouse slots to see what had occurred. “By God!” he cried. “The Merrimac’s retreating.”
“Tom,” he shouted at me. “Get the other officers here!”
No doubt: the Merrimac was leaving the Roads.
Once the officers had assembled, they had a quick council. Greene laid out the question: should they go after the Merrimac or follow Captain Worden’s last order, to protect the Minnesota?
In the end, Mr. Greene choose to follow the captain’s orders. So the Monitor returned to the side of the Minnesota.
Suddenly the battle was over.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Who Won?
WE’D BEEN FIGHTING for just about four hours. When we saw the Merrimac going away, since most of the crew had been in the hot ship for twelve hours, we raced up to the turret and deck top for fresh air. The Merrimac was surely heading back to the Elizabeth River. Far as we could tell, she’d just given up.
I counted some twenty-two dents, mostly in the turret, but not one crack in our iron plating.
A grinning Mr. Geer, who’d been shoveling coal in the engine room, said it best: “I guess they were only flinging spitballs at us.”
Seeing the Merrimac retreat, knowing that the Minnesota was safe, the Monitor pulled toward the town of Newport News. As we nosed toward town, folk and soldiers cheered and hurrahed. It felt like the whole world had come out to see us. Pretty soon our deck was crowded with generals and officers congratulating us on our victory, treating us like heroes.
I guess we were.
For dinner I helped serve beefsteak and peas. In the midst of the dinner, a Mr. Gustavus Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, boarded us. Seeing us eating so calmly, he said, “Well, gentlemen, you don’t look as though you were just through one of the greatest naval conflicts on record.”
Now, the Rebs didn’t see it that way. When we pulled back during Captain Worden’s injury, they decided it was us who’d given up. Claimed they had won. No doubt, before we got into the Roads, the Merrimac did awful damage to the Federal squadron. Sunk two major Union ships. Seriously damaged another.
They had reason to think they’d won.
But looking back, I’d have to see it another way.
First off, the Merrimac had retreated with lots of damage to her iron plating. She was leaking so badly, it took six weeks to repair her.
But the main thing was this: the Monitor kept the Merrimac from destroying the Union’s naval blockade.
Later on, some folks said that what we did in Hampton Roads was more important for the Union cause than the Battle of Gettysburg. From that came the claim that the Monitor’s action had doomed the Confederacy. For sure, the Merrimac never fought again. Later on, in May, to keep her from falling into Union hands, the Rebs destroyed her.
Captain Worden? In the end he wasn’t blinded. He did stay pale in the face with a faint tattoo of powder burn, but he continued to serve on other Monitors and had himself a fine naval career.
What happened to the Monitor? She saw very little real action, except we were ordered up the James River and tried to dislodge a rebel battery, but that didn’t amount to much. The government in Washington wanted to keep her intact—a symbol of a great victory.
For much of the year, she saw only a little active duty on the James River, but mostly remained where she was, at anchor. But finally on Christmas Day, 1862, we were sent south, ready for major action.
Lord help us! On December thirtieth, the Monitor was caught in another big storm. This time in the early morning hours of New Year’s Eve, the ship sank to the bottom of the sea. Sixteen men were lost—twelve sailors plus four officers. I was lucky to get off alive.
The Monitor had not lived a full year.
What about me? I stayed with the navy, fought on other ironclads. It wasn’t the same. When the war was over I went back to Brooklyn. Ma was doing fine. Dora struggled on. I became a carpenter. But I have to admit, there wasn’t any greater moment in my life than when I served as one of—it’s what we all called ourselves—the Monitor boys.
The Rebs destroyed the Merrimac to keep her out of Union hands.
After the battle, the London Times wrote: “Whereas England had available for immediate purposes one hundred and forty-nine first-class war ships … There is not now a ship in the English navy apart from … two ironclads that it would not be madness to trust in an engagement with that little Monitor.”
Navies ‘round the world would never be the same again.
Now one more thing: there’s this famous writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and when writing about the Monitor he said, “How can an admiral condescend to go to sea in an iron pot? All the pomp and splendor of naval warfare are gone by.”
I’m here to tell you that Mr. Hawthorne was dead wrong. I know. I was there. I saw it all.
GLOSSARY
ANCHORAGE: A place where ships anchor
BALLOON SPOTTERS: It was during the Civil War that military observers were first carried aloft in baskets tethered to balloons so as to observe what was happening on the ground.
BATTERY: Military term for cannons
BLOCKADE: A military tactic by which one side tries to prevent the enemy from moving troops or supplies
BOW: The front of a boat
BREECH: The back end of the muzzle on a firearm, where the explosive charge is packed and fired
BRIG: A room used as a jail on a boat. On the Monitor, the anchor room was the brig.
CAPSTAN: The wheel on which an anchor cable is wound
CIVIL WAR, 1861–1865: This is a term that came to be used after the war. During the war, the South spoke of it as the War Between the States. The North spoke of the War of the Rebellion.
COME ABOUT: The nautical term for turning around
COPPERHEAD: A person in the Northern states whose sympathies lay with the Confederacy during the war. The term came from antiwar Democrats who wore the copper penny that bore the head of “Lady Liberty” as a badge of opposition to the war. In turn, Union supporters referred to them as vicious snakes.
CREW: The total number of active men on a ship. On the Monitor, the crew were quite young, and came from many different places. Pictures reveal that there were also African Americans on the crew.
CUTTER: A sailing boat with one mast
DAHLGREN CANNONS: Invented by John Dahlgren. Dahlgren was in charge of the navy’s guns. The Dahlgren cannons were bulbous at the breech end, which allowed for a larger explosive charge. That meant heavier shot could be fired greater distances.
DRAFT: The depth of a ship’s hull below the waterline; also, the minimum depth of water a ship needs to float.
FATHOM: The nautical term for measuring water depth. A fathom is six feet. Six fathoms, then, would be thirty-six feet.
FEDS: Federal forces of the United States of America
FLAGSHIP: The primary ship among a fleet of ships. Usually it is the ship from which the admiral of a fleet commands.
FLOATING BATTERY: A raft with cannons on it
GUNBOAT: An armed ship of modest size
GUNPOWDER: When used with cannons, gunpowder was put in pre-weighted cloth bags for ease of loading.
HELMSMAN: The member of the crew who turned—under the captain’s orders—the steering wheel
JEFFERSON DAVIS: The first and only president of the Confederate States of America. He had been a former U.S. senator. When the war ended, he was captured and imprisoned at Fort Monroe. He was later released, and no charges were ever brought against him.
KNOT: A nautical term measuring speed. A knot is one nautical mile per hour.
MAGAZINE: The storage place for gunpowder
/> MERRIMAC: When the Confederates rebuilt the Merrimac into an ironclad, they renamed her the Virginia. That said, very few in the North referred to her by any name other than the Merrimac. In the South, even at the time, the name Merrimac was used more often than not.
MONITOR: The name was chosen by John Ericsson, with the notion that he would teach the Rebels a lesson.
MUTINY: A rebellion on a ship, during which the crew takes control from the officers
NAVY JACK: A jack is a flag. The navy jack is the official navy flag.
ON STATION: The location and task assigned to a navy ship
PADDLE WHEELERS: Most ships were driven by sails. A steam-driven ship, such as the Merrimac, had propellers. Paddle wheelers were steamships with large paddle wheels on both sides of the ship. The Seth Low is a good example of a paddle wheeler.
PILOT: In coastal waters, bays, and harbors, where waters could be shallow and deep channels hard to locate, it was common to take on a pilot who knew the waters well, and thus could navigate safely.
PORT: The left side of a ship, looking forward
RAM: One of the unusual things about the Merrimac was its ram. This was a cast-iron spike set in its bow, designed to pierce the hull of a ship. That is what sank the Cumberland. However, unknown to the Union navy, the ram of the Merrimac broke off during that engagement. The ram is believed to still be lying under the waters of Hampton Roads.
RUN UP: To roll a cannon forward so that it is ready to fire
SCREW PROPELLER: The kind of propeller that drives virtually all ships today—from outboard motors to battleships. The screw propeller was invented by John Ericsson.
SERVANTS: In 1862, it was common for navy officers to have their own servants. The servants were not considered part of the crew.
SHOAL: A shallow section of water
STARBOARD: The right side of a ship, looking forward
STERN: The rear of the boat
THE UNION: The United States of America
USS: United States Ship
WATCH: Navy crews were divided into watches, which meant that while some slept or were off duty, others worked.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Iron Thunder is a work of fiction based on a real historical event. My intent was to bring that moment to life for my readers.
The saga of the Monitor and its epic battle with the Confederate Merrimac was witnessed by thousands. Not surprisingly, many—including those directly engaged—wrote about what happened. But there is an old saying: The more who witness a fact—the less certain that fact becomes.
To think like a historian, one must be a detective. To be a good detective, one must think like a novelist. To be a good novelist, one must, as writer Paula Fox once observed, “Imagine the truth.”
I have told this story from the point of view of a boy on the Monitor. There really was a first class boy named Thomas Carroll on the ship, though somewhat older than the Tom depicted here. In fact, he was born in Ireland. That said, most of what my character does is imagined. In that sense, Tom is a composite of many of the people who were on the ship. For instance, I’ve radically reduced the role Paymaster Keeler had during the battle itself, and put Tom in his place. Not having a record of Captain Worden’s appeal to the sailors to volunteer, I tried to imagine his words.
To write this book, I consulted many biographical records, newspaper accounts, and histories, as well as original letters, logs, telegraph messages, memoirs, and reports from people who were either on board the Monitor or witnessed what happened. I have used these records to describe what happened and to put words into the mouth of Tom and others. That said, many of the exchanges have been taken right from memoirs or the contemporaneous letters.
It should be stated that some of the facts—even those pu forward by witnesses—can and should be disputed. Those upon the Merrimac thought they had defeated the Monitor. It may be considered a cliché, but there is truth to the notion that victors write the histories, and there can be no question that the forces of the United States defeated the Confederacy.
One of the most interesting aspects of the real story of the Monitor is that many of those who were engaged knew they were making history. Not unlike the men who first stepped upon the moon, those on the Monitor knew that what they were doing was momentous.
Again, my intent here was to give real history real life. The story of the Monitor is extraordinary. I can only hope I have served her well.
THE MONITOR TODAY
In 1973, the wreckage of the Monitor was located at the bottom of the sea. Since that time, large parts of it—the turret, its cannons, and engines, plus a vast array of artifacts—have been recovered. They were brought to the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Here, the USS Monitor Center—in partnership with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration—was established, and a new museum for the public display of everything about the Monitor, both large and small—from the turret itself to boots and a butter dish—was created.
The recovery of the Monitor’s turret.
The museum, however, is more than just a display of objects. Here, one can view a full-size replica of the ship, walk through a reconstruction of the officers’quarters, move through a simulation of the battle itself, and much, much more. This is museum creation at its most modern, accessible, and exciting.
For a great deal of information about the museum, and the Monitor, go to www.monitorcenter.org.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Davis, William C. Duel Between the First Ironclads. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1975.
DeKay, James Tertius. Monitor: The Story of the Legendary Civil War Ironclad and the Man Whose Invention Changed the Course of History. New York: Walker & Company, 1997.
Donovan, Frank Robert. Ironclads of the Civil War. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1964.
Geer, George S. The Monitor Chronicles. One Sailor’s Account. New York: Simon & Schuster and the Mariners’Museum, 2000.
Keeler, William Frederick. Aboard the USS Monitor: 1862; The Letters of Acting Paymaster William Frederick Keeler, to His Wife, Anna. Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1964.
Konstam, Angus. Duel of the Ironclads: USS Monitor and CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, 1862. Nothhants, UK: Osprey, 2003.
Nelson, James L. Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimac. New York: William Morrow, 2004.
Worden, John Lorimer, D. G. Greene, H. A. Ramsay, and E. W. Watson. The Monitor and the Merrimac: Both Sides of the Story Told by Lieut. J. L. Worden. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1912.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could not have been written without the existence of The Mariners’ Museum and Library and its endlessly supportive staff. They provided materials, suggestions, guidance, and corrections when necessary. Particular thanks go to Anna Holloway, Claudia Jew, Lester Weber, and Cathy Williamson. Deep-felt thanks to all.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AVI has written more than sixty books, several of which have garnered prestigious awards, including the Newbery Award and two Newbery Honors. His titles with Hyperion include Crispin: The Cross of Lead; Crispin: At the Edge of the World; and The Book Without Words. He lives with his family in Colorado.
AVI has written more than seventy books, including the Newbery Award winner Crispin: The Cross of Lead. Other titles of Avi’s published by Disney • Hyperion Books are Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859; Crispin: At the Edge of the World; and The Book Without Words. He lives with his family in Colorado.
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