The _Merrimac_ carried ten guns, which fired shells and had a crew of 300 men, under the command of Commodore Franklin Buchanan, a former officer of the United States navy. Late in the forenoon of March 8, 1862, a column of black smoke rising over the Norfolk Navy Yard gave notice that the _Merrimac_ had started out at last on her mission of destruction and death. As the enormous craft forged into sight it was seen that she was accompanied by three gunboats ready to give what help they could. Five Union vessels were awaiting her in Hampton Roads. They were the steam frigates _Minnesota_ and _Roanoke_ and the sailing frigates _Congress_, _Cumberland_ and _St. Lawrence_, all of which immediately cleared for action. Turning her frightful front toward the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ swept down upon her in grim and awful majesty. The _Cumberland_ let fly with her terrific broadsides, which were powerful enough to sink the largest ship afloat, but the tons of metal hurled with inconceivable force skipped off the greased sides of the iron roof and scooted away for hundreds of yards through the startled air. The prodigious broadsides were launched again and again, but produced no more effect than so many paper wads from a popgun. The iron prow of the _Merrimac_ crashed through the wooden walls of the _Cumberland_ as if they were cardboard, and, while her crew were still heroically working their guns, the _Cumberland_ went down, with the red flag, meaning "no surrender," flying from her peak. Lieutenant Morris succeeded in saving himself, but 121 were lost out of the crew of 376. Having destroyed the _Cumberland_, the _Merrimac_ now made for the _Congress_, which had been vainly pelting her with her broadsides. The _Congress_ was aground and so completely at the mercy of the _Merrimac_, which raked her fore and aft, that every man would have been killed had not the sign of surrender been displayed. As it was, her commander and 100 of the crew were slain by the irresistible fire of the tremendous ironclad. By this time the fearful spring afternoon was drawing to a close and the _Merrimac_ labored heavily back to Sewall's Point, intending to return on the morrow and continue her work of destruction. The news of what the _Merrimac_ had done was telegraphed throughout the South and North. In the former it caused wild rejoicing and raised hope that before the resistless might of the new ironclad the North would be compelled to make terms and save her leading seacoast cities from annihilation by acknowledging the Southern Confederacy. The national authorities were thrown into consternation. At a special meeting of the President's Cabinet Secretary of War Stanton expressed his belief that the _Merrimac_ would appear in front of Washington and compel the authorities to choose between surrender and destruction, and that the principal seaports would be laid under contribution.