But the main result was reached. The Union fleet was saved. The career of the _Merrimac_ was checked. No Union vessel was destroyed after the _Monitor_ appeared. It seems proper to note these facts here, in view of the fact that Mr. Ramsay's fresh and striking story of the _Merrimac_, which is presented for the first time, enters upon the details of the battle more fully than the narrative of Lieutenant Worden and Lieutenant Greene. Fortunately the discussion has become academic in the half-century that has passed since Southern cheers over the first conquests of the _Merrimac_ faltered before the acclaim which greeted the _Monitor's_ achievement of her task. One may disagree with the phrasing of various historians on both sides, one may find it difficult to accept the inscription upon the shaft of the _Merrimac_ outside the "Confederate White House" in Richmond, but no American can cease to wonder at the fortitude and daring of those other Americans who fought to the death in those hastily improvised crafts, bearing the brunt not only of battle, but of a strange and terrible experiment. It is not an argument that this book offers, but a saga of heroes, an illumination of qualities which have made our history in times of crisis. The year of this battle witnessed the destruction of both the vessels engaged. Mr. Ramsay describes the blowing-up of the _Merrimac_. An eye-witness of the sinking of the _Monitor_ off Hatteras, Rear-Admiral E.W. Watson, who was an officer of the _Rhode Island_, which was towing the _Monitor_ on that eventful night, has very kindly written a brief description of the tragedy for this book. * * * * * The publishers desire to make acknowledgment to the representatives of the late Lucius E. Chittenden for the use of Part I of this book, which appears in Mr. Chittenden's most interesting volume, _Recollections of President Lincoln and his Administration_. THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC I _Told by Lieutenant Worden and Lieutenant S.D. Greene of the "Monitor"_ Some weeks after the historic battle between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ in Hampton Roads, on March 9, 1862, the former vessel came to the Washington Navy-yard unchanged, in the same condition as when she discharged her parting shot at the _Merrimac_. There she lay until her heroic commander had so far recovered from his injuries as to be able to rejoin his vessel. All leaves of absence had been revoked, the absentees had returned, and were ready to welcome their captain. President Lincoln, Captain Fox, and a limited number of Captain Worden's personal friends had been invited to his informal reception. Lieutenant Greene received the President and the guests. He was a boy in years--not too young to volunteer, however, when volunteers were scarce, and to fight the _Merrimac_ during the last half of the battle, after the captain was disabled.