Memories of Virginia
expectedly met the king of terror in the gateway of Home under the sheltering arms of Fortress Monroe.
The Merrimac returned uninjured to Norfolk, but all were sure the black monster would make a second return and anxious, earnest eyes watched for the reappearance of the apparently invincible craft.
At dawn the following morning, upon the return of the Merrimac, another monster awaited her in Hampton Roads ready for encounter, a strange looking vessel that seemed a raft with a turret rising from the center. It was the famous Monitor, just completed in Brooklyn Navy Yard, that, during the night had unexpectedly arrived from New York. If there was surprise neither made sign, and without a moment's hesitation the two monsters met in a duel of death, neither expected or desired quarter, both fought with equal valor and deadly effect, both suffered but neither was destroyed, and both stood the shock of battle without much injury. The Monitor was as deadly execution as the Merrimac, but neither was victor or vanquished, both, however, fulfilled a mission to demonstrate in Hampton Roads "The Last of the Wooden Navy." The Merrimac returned to Norfolk, the Monitor remained at Newport News, but the career of each was brief, and not long after both found eternal anchorage under the waves, the Merrimac, near the scene of her greatness, was sunk by her commander. Commodore Tatnall, who gave her to the waves rather than surrender her to the enemy. The Monitor was lost in a storm, but both live in memory, and the naval duel of the first ironclads has been described by pens of
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