The mechanical resources of the Confederacy were defective, and this novel structure was eight months in preparation. [Sidenote: 1862 A.D.] One morning in March she steamed slowly down the James river, attended by five small vessels of the ordinary sort. A powerful Northern fleet lay guarding the mouth of the river. The _Virginia_--as the iron-clad had been named--came straight towards the hostile ships. She fired no shot; no man showed himself upon her deck. The Federals assailed her with well-aimed discharges; but the shot bounded harmless from her sides. She steered for the _Cumberland_, into whose timbers she struck her armed prow. A huge cleft opened in the _Cumberland’s_ side, and the gallant ship went down with a hundred men of her crew on board. The _Virginia_ next attacked the Federal ship _Congress_. At a distance of two hundred yards she opened her guns upon this ill-fated vessel. The _Congress_ was aground, and could offer no effective resistance. After sustaining heavy loss, she was forced to surrender. Night approached, and the _Virginia_ drew off, intending to resume her work on the morrow. Early next morning--a bright Sunday morning--she steamed out, and made for the _Minnesota_--a Federal ship which had been grounded to get beyond her reach. The _Minnesota_ was still aground, and helpless. Beside her, however, as the men on board the _Virginia_ observed, lay a mysterious structure, resembling nothing they had ever seen before. Her deck was scarcely visible above the water, and it supported nothing but an iron turret nine feet high. This was the _Monitor_, designed by Captain Ericsson;--the first of the class of iron-clad turret-ships. By a singular chance she had arrived thus opportunely. The two iron-clads measured their strength in combat, but their shot produced no impression, and after two hours of heavy but ineffective firing, they separated, and the _Virginia_ retired up the James river. This fight opened a new era in naval warfare. The Washington Government hastened to build turret-ships. All European Governments, perceiving the worthlessness of ships of the old type, proceeded to reconstruct their navies according to the light which the action of the _Virginia_ and the _Monitor_ afforded them. * * * * *