It was expected that the battery would now be attached to the Army of the Potomac but on the organization of Gen. B. F. Butler's expedition, Captain Nims and his men were assigned to the Department of the Gulf and the Mississippi. Accordingly on February 25, 1862 the battery left Baltimore and went by steamer _Columbia_ to Fort Monroe camping near Hampton in view of the mouth of the James River and of Hampton Roads. Here the men witnessed the destruction of the warships _Congress_ and _Cumberland_ by the ram _Merrimac_ and the encounter between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_. The following interesting account of the same is taken from a record written by S. P. Skilton, a member of the battery. "On the 8th of March at noon we heard heavy firing toward Newport News and the steam frigates _Roanoke_ and _Minnesota_ and quite a lot of gunboats went up that way engaging the battery at Sewall's Point though their fire fell far short of it. The old steam frigate _Merrimac_ had been cut down and iron clad by the Confederates and was whipping our vessels, as they were all wooden ones and could make scarcely any impression on the ironplated monster. After about an hour's hard fighting the _Merrimac_ ran her prow into the _Cumberland_, causing her to fill with water and rendering her useless. "Commodore Morris would not surrender nor haul down the flag but kept at work at the guns till water covered the decks. Night coming on, the _Merrimac_ anchored off Sewall's Point. That was a dark night for us, as with one exception nothing looked hopeful. We were cut off from help landward, the _Congress_ was burned, the _Cumberland_ sunk, the _Minnesota_ was aground and the _Roanoke_ helpless with a broken shaft, while nothing seemed to check the ram at all. About midnight the _Congress_ blew up. Among the dark rumors that night came a grain of hope in the report that an iron cased battery, the _Ericsson_ which had been expected had arrived and would engage the _Merrimac_ in the morning. Still it was but a grain. "Light on that Sabbath morning showed the new helper lying behind the _Minnesota_ but looking rather insignificant. About eight o'clock the _Merrimac_ came saucily out accompanied by the _Jamestown_ and _Yorktown_, wooden steamers and evidently expecting to have it all her own way as on the previous afternoon. As she approached the _Minnesota_ the new comer came out from behind, which caused her to hesitate. She soon came on again when the _Ericsson_ engaged her for several hours. At one o'clock the _Merrimac_ hauled away for Norfolk with her guns all disabled while the _Ericsson_ was not damaged at all. You can imagine there was great relief on the part of those who had stood watching and feeling that their own welfare depended on the outcome of that fight."