Thirteen Chapters of American History Part 5

Havens, the old lady then being ninety-eight years of age.

It may be interesting to recall that it was Captain Reid who, about the year 1817, designed the present flag of the United States, which for a time had been altered to fifteen stripes to designate the number of States to which the country had increased. On the suggestion of Captain Reid the number was again reduced to thirteen, and the addition of the States designated by the number of stars in the blue field. This was adopted by Act of Congress on April 4, 1818, and the first flag that was flung to the breeze, under the new law, was made by Mrs. Reid, the wife of the gallant Captain, the stars in the blue field being arranged at that time in the shape of a constellation const.i.tuting one great star.

Besides the glory which Captain Reid achieved through his wonderful exploit at Fayal--all the more wonderful if it is remembered that he and his men were volunteer seamen, untrained in the regular navy of the United States--he had rendered his country a service far greater even than this feat of arms. It so happened that the s.h.i.+ps of Commodore Lloyd were bound for the Gulf of Mexico to a.s.sist in the attack upon New Orleans; but by reason of the injury and demoralization inflicted on them by Captain Reid they were delayed long enough to prevent their co-operating with the British General, Sir Edward Packenham, in an earlier attack upon New Orleans, as originally contemplated, when General Jackson was not prepared to meet and defeat the enemy; the consequence of which might have been the loss to the United States of the entire Province of Louisiana, which had only a decade before been acquired from France.

Captain Reid was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on August 25, 1783, and died at the venerable age of seventy-eight at New York on January 28, 1861, on the very eve of our great Civil War, having enjoyed many honors, among them an appointment as Warden of the Port of New York.

Not only on account of the extraordinary character of the fight itself, but also on account of its indirect consequences, in a.s.sisting to bring the War of 1812 to a close, is this painting of the greatest interest.

It measures full up to the excellence of the other numbers of the series, notwithstanding the immediate subject was not one which presented the most graphic material for the brush of the painter. Mr.

Moran chose the most thrilling incident of the fight in depicting the firing of the brig on the approaching row-boats of the enemy. This he has accomplished with consummate skill. He has herein, as in all his other battle scenes on the water, avoided the portrayal of carnage and destruction of human life in lurid colors as is the custom with most painters. He has left these abhorrent scenes to the imagination, and has thereby rendered his pictures, while suggesting all the dreadful accompaniments of warfare, chaste, and free from scenes which are revolting to the feelings.

The picture is perfect in itself, in its representation of the position of the "Armstrong," swayed, as it evidently is, through the powerful blasts from its own twenty-four pounder--the fire of the rifles from the men in the British row-boats--the buildings on the sh.o.r.e in the background on the left, with the suggestion of the hills on which the town is built and the British s.h.i.+ps in the offing on the right--with the rising moon in the distance--and the sh.o.r.es of Fayal dimly defined upon the horizon, extending, as they do in fact, with their two widening arms around the harbor.

IRON VERSUS WOOD Sinking of the c.u.mberland by the Merrimac

(_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862_)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]

XI.

IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE c.u.mBERLAND BY THE MERRIMAC.

_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862._[N]

The t.i.tle of this picture suggests not only the unequal character of the fight which the wooden s.h.i.+p "c.u.mberland" fought against the iron-clad "Merrimac," the first iron-clad that ever sailed in American waters, but also recalls to mind the contrast between the steel-armored battles.h.i.+ps of the navies of the world of to-day and the wooden hulks which prevailed up to that time. It is a long span of time from the battle of brave Captain Reid in the harbor of Fayal in 1814 to the year 1861, but during that half century little progress had been made in supplying the s.h.i.+ps of our navy with protecting devices, as there had likewise been little occasion for naval warfare. In fact, outside of the Mexican War and fights with the Indians, the country was at peace with itself as well as with the outside world, and it was not until the great struggle for the preservation of the Union called the whole country to arms, both on sea and land, that the opportunity was again presented for the shedding of additional l.u.s.tre on our naval history.

The most thrilling and startling of all the events on the sea, during this sanguinary conflict, followed when, at noon on March 8, 1862, a novel craft, such as had never been seen before, was cut loose from her moorings in Norfolk, and, after having steamed down the Elizabeth River, was seen to head boldly for Newport News, where lay the United States frigate "Congress" of fifty guns, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph B. Smith, and the twenty-four gun sloop of war "c.u.mberland," in charge of Lieutenant George U. Morris during the temporary absence of its commander, William Radford, two of the fleet of national s.h.i.+ps, all riding at anchor in fancied security, without a thought of the death and destruction which the appearance of the stranger portended. It was an odd-looking craft--the "Merrimac," as it is generally called--more like a house afloat than a war s.h.i.+p, and the officers of the Federal s.h.i.+ps were at first inclined to belittle its importance. The undertaking of the "Merrimac" itself (or "Virginia," as she was called by the Confederates) was one of great courage, the vessel in its last stages having but just been converted into an iron-clad, in great haste, out of the hulk of a sunken old style man-of-war (the "Merrimac"), which had been raised by the Confederates. The experiment was a new one; the men had not been drilled; its armament had never been tested, and its commander, Commodore Buchanan, had only recently arisen from a sick-bed.

He had been a Union officer in the regular navy, and as such had placed the entire naval service under great obligations in being the first to have located the Naval Academy at Annapolis under a commission from the Secretary of the Navy. When it was realized by the commanders of the American s.h.i.+ps that the "Merrimac" was steaming towards them in dead earnest there was hurried preparation for the impending conflict, and as she approached the "c.u.mberland" and the "Congress" they opened fire on the huge craft, but their heavy projectiles glanced from her as if they were paper b.a.l.l.s. About 2:30 P.M. the "Merrimac," then within easy range, opened fire on the "c.u.mberland," doing much damage. The two Federal s.h.i.+ps, which were only about one hundred feet away, then gave the "Merrimac" full broadsides, but without the slightest effect, and the latter craft mercilessly sent four sh.e.l.ls cras.h.i.+ng into the "Congress," notwithstanding that Commodore Buchanan had a brother, McKean Buchanan, paymaster on the "Congress,"--a harrowing ill.u.s.tration of the horrifying encounters among the closest kindred in civil warfare.

After disabling the "Congress," the "Merrimac" directed her attention to the "c.u.mberland," and under a full head of steam her iron prow or ram, which projected four feet, struck the Federal s.h.i.+p "nearly at right angles under the fore rigging in the starboard fore channels." I quote further from Maclay's "History of the Navy": "The shock was scarcely felt in the iron-clad, but in the 'c.u.mberland' it was terrific. The s.h.i.+p heeled over to port and trembled as if she had struck a rock under full sail, while the iron prow of the 'Merrimac' crushed through her side and left a yawning chasm. In backing out of the 'c.u.mberland,' the 'Merrimac'

left her iron prow inside the doomed s.h.i.+p. Following up the blow by the discharge of her bow gun, she backed clear of the wreck. In response to a demand for surrender, Lieutenant Morris defiantly answered, 'Never!

I'll sink alongside.' * * * * The scene in the 'c.u.mberland' soon became awful. One sh.e.l.l, bursting in the sick bay, killed or wounded four men in their cots. More than a hundred of the crew very soon were killed or wounded; the c.o.c.kpit was crowded; the decks were slippery with blood and were strewn with the dead and dying, while the inrus.h.i.+ng waters and the rapid settling of the s.h.i.+p too plainly indicated that she would soon go to the bottom. 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 s.h.i.+p settled more and more they were removed from this temporary refuge and carried on deck and placed amids.h.i.+p. This was all that their s.h.i.+pmates could do for them, and when the s.h.i.+p finally went down they perished in her."

After sinking the "c.u.mberland," the "Merrimac" again turned on the "Congress" with her entire broadside and, owing to her own impervious character, soon got the Federal s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps, the "Minnesota," "St. Lawrence" and "Roanoke," and after having, with the a.s.sistance 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 anch.o.r.ed 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 "c.u.mberland" 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 s.h.i.+ps, 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 sh.e.l.l. 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 almost impossible to paint in words the scene which the great artist has here perpetuated with his brush. The water is incomparable and the effect of the s.h.i.+pping as a background, the bright afternoon sun, with the stars and stripes on the "c.u.mberland," and the stars and bars, the emblem of the Confederacy, on the stern of the death-dealing Southern monster, the crowded deck of the "c.u.mberland," in contrast with the apparently unmanned craft of the enemy, all add to the thrilling and vivid effect of the extraordinary combat itself.

When the news of the destruction wrought by the "Merrimac" reached the North the general consternation was indescribable. At a hastily called Cabinet meeting the then Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, is reported to have said: "The 'Merrimac' will change the whole character of the war; she will destroy every naval vessel; she will lay all seaboard cities under contribution; not unlikely we may have a sh.e.l.l or cannon ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this room." But the fate of the "Merrimac" was sealed, for while she was being moulded out of the old Federal hulk into the terrifying ram, with great ingenuity, by Constructor John L. Porter, with the a.s.sistance of Chief Engineer William P. Williamson, after some rough drawings prepared by Lieutenant John N. Brook, who originated the idea of her construction, all then of the Confederate navy--through a strange coincidence a genius had been at work in the North perfecting the world-renowned little "Monitor," which was soon to meet the formidable Southern iron-clad in battle, the history of which is suggested by the next painting of the series. It is also strange that in two of the most noted dramas in the records of our navy, the one above recounted, and that, already referred to, in which Lieutenant Hobson later bore so heroic a part, the most conspicuous objects were vessels which were both known as the "Merrimac." The valor of Lieutenant Morris, in the part which he bore in the defence of the "c.u.mberland," has been immortalized not only through this canvas, but also through a special message of Abraham Lincoln to Congress under date of December 10, 1862, as follows:

"In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially recommend that Lieutenant-Commander George U. Morris, United States Navy, receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the determined valor and heroism displayed in his defence of the United States s.h.i.+p-of-war 'c.u.mberland,' temporarily under his command, in the naval engagement at Hampton Roads on the 8th March, 1862, with the rebel iron-clad steam frigate 'Merrimac.'"

THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE To the Body of CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON

(_New York Bay, August 25, 1890_)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright, 1891, by Edward Moran.]

XII.

THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE TO THE BODY OF CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON.

_New York Bay, August 25, 1890._[O]

No more fitting funeral cortege could have been devised than the one which, on August 25, 1890, conveyed to Sweden, to their last resting-place, the remains of the great engineer, John Ericsson, whose inventive genius had clad the wooden navies of the world in armor of impenetrable iron and steel. Little had he dreamt when, in 1839, at the age of thirty-six (he was born at Vermland, Sweden, on July 31, 1803) he came to the United States in one of the old wooden s.h.i.+ps of that day after a weary journey of many weeks--as yet comparatively unknown to fame--that at the time of his death, on March 8, 1889, in the city of New York, almost twenty-seven years to a day after the epoch-making battle of his "Monitor" with the "Merrimac," his name would be on every tongue in every land, and that the Government of the United States would deem it an honor to place the magnificent protected cruiser "Baltimore"

of the United States Navy at the disposal of his native country on his farewell journey from our sh.o.r.es to his long home, amid the salutes, to their flag-s.h.i.+p, of the other giants of the White Squadron and the reverent tokens of grief and respect displayed on all the s.h.i.+pping in the harbor, as the funeral convoy slowly plied her way towards the ocean, with the flags of Sweden and the United States waving at half mast over her decks.

It is this impressive panorama which the artist spreads before us in this canvas, which was the sensation of the Spring exhibition of 1891 at the National Academy of Design in New York. In this picture he has delineated details of the s.h.i.+pping from sketches made by himself at the time and a careful study of our war vessels, as holds likewise true of the next succeeding and last picture of this series. There is something impressively grand and solemn about this painting, a.s.sociated as it is with the story of the great inventor. The sky is superb, and the water has that realistic motion without turbulence which only Edward Moran could depict, while the white gleaming sister s.h.i.+ps of the "Baltimore"

in the background on the right, the s.h.i.+pping in the harbor of all descriptions and sizes in more sombre hue on the left, and the Statue of Liberty looming up in the rear, stand like sentinels on guard as the great white cruiser, with its flags at half mast and its stacks sending forth, like a veil of mourning, a cloud of black smoke--ploughs with foam encircled prow majestically through the water, like a great living, breathing, moving thing.

As this creation of the artist perpetuates the tribute of national grat.i.tude to the great inventor of the first "Monitor," so, it may be said, a fitting tribute has been paid to the picture itself through its reproduction in a superb etching by another great American artist, his own brother, Thomas Moran.

That the United States Navy should take so deep an interest in paying the last honors to John Ericsson, with an Admiral of the Navy, Daniel L.

Braine, superintending the ceremonies, and a future Admiral, Winfield Scott Schley, commanding the funeral convoy, is not surprising, for to Ericsson it owed not only the bomb-proof floating fortresses of the ocean, but the screw propeller, first applied in the construction of the United States man-of-war "Princeton," with propelling machinery under the water line out of the reach of shot. The first steam fire-engine ever constructed in the United States was also the work of Ericsson in 1841, and many and varied were the other inventions of his creative brain. But the greatest service rendered by Ericsson was in the construction of the "Monitor," not only on account of the immediate, almost inestimable benefit which it conferred in saving the United States Navy from destruction by the Confederate iron-clad "Merrimac," in 1862, but also, still more, in view of the impetus which it gave to the development of marine craft to their present perfection and in almost revolutionizing the entire science of naval warfare.

When, at 8 o'clock on March 9, 1862, the "Merrimac," after the havoc which she had wrought with the Federal s.h.i.+ps on the evening before, including the burning of the "Congress" and the sinking of the "c.u.mberland," steamed out from the sh.o.r.e in order to continue her work of destruction--which contemplated successively the annihilation of the "Minnesota," the "Roanoke" and the "St. Lawrence," and would thus clear the way for her intended attack on the capital of the nation--she was surprised to discover a diminutive craft of peculiar construction, almost sunk beneath the water line, with a strange-looking iron turret in the centre, steaming boldly towards her from out the shadow of the powerful frigate "Minnesota." The "Monitor" had sailed from New York Harbor on March 6th, in tow of a tugboat, to brave the waters of the Atlantic, although she was originally designed only for smooth inland waters. Before she had pa.s.sed Sandy Hook she received urgent despatches to hurry to Was.h.i.+ngton and, after inconceivable hards.h.i.+ps in the towering seas of the Atlantic coast, arrived off Fortress Monroe about 9 o'clock in the evening of March 8th, where she heard for the first time of the depredations of the "Merrimac" and witnessed the final destruction of the "Congress" amid lurid flames and the bursting of her own sh.e.l.ls. Though worn out and disheartened in their own struggle for life with the tempestuous billows of the ocean on this, her first trial trip of thirty-six hours from New York until she reached the side of the "Minnesota," the crew of the "Monitor," encouraged and rea.s.sured by its heroic commander, Lieutenant John L. Worden, prepared for the expected combat with their redoubtable opponent.

The eyes not only of the men in the s.h.i.+pping and on sh.o.r.e, both Union and Confederate, but of the whole country, were anxiously centred on the two iron-clads as they approached each other, and the little "Monitor"

hardly seemed a match for the huge craft of the Confederates, who looked with contempt upon the diminutive "cheese box," as they called it, which dared to take up the gage of battle with their formidable "Merrimac."

Soon, however, it became apparent that the prowess of the little Union craft had been entirely underestimated, and in the combat which ensued the very smallness of the "Monitor" gave her a great advantage, in the swiftness of her movements, over her gigantic opponent, not unlike an undersized but agile and skilful athlete in encounter with a large and lumbering, though more powerful, antagonist. Lieutenant Worden was the hero of the occasion in the rapidity of his man[oe]uvring, while Lieutenant Jones, now in command of the "Merrimac," was surprised to find that his shot made no impression on the "Monitor." After more than two hours of incessant fighting, Lieutenant Worden having been temporarily blinded through the powder from an exploding sh.e.l.l which struck a sight-hole in the pilot-house of the "Monitor," through which he was watching the enemy, its command devolved upon Lieutenant Greene.

As in the ensuing confusion the "Monitor" had drifted into shoal water, where the "Merrimac" could not follow, the latter s.h.i.+p retired to the sh.o.r.e, and although refitted and repaired for further combat she did not again meet the "Monitor" in battle, and, on the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederates on the 10th of May following, they consigned her to destruction.

The courage of Lieutenant Worden in the handling of the novel and untested craft under his command, and his brave words--even when blinded and wounded by the powder and particles from the sh.e.l.ls of the enemy and suffering intense pain--when he was told that the "Minnesota" had been saved: "Then I can die happy,"--stamp him as worthy of a place in the long list of our naval heroes.

It is not surprising that Abraham Lincoln, with his quick perception of genuine merit, caused the following communication to be sent to Lieutenant Worden:

"NAVY DEPARTMENT, _March 15, 1862_.

"_Lieutenant John L. Worden, United States Navy, Commanding United States Steamer 'Monitor,'