The _Merrimac_ chose her position at about 100 yards’ range, despising the guns of the _Congress_, and raked her fore and aft, dismounting guns and covering her deck with mangled limbs. In three places the _Congress_ burst into flames, and the dry timber crackled and blazed and smoked like a volcano. The men could not stand by the guns for the fervent heat. The wounded were slowly burned alive. The officers could not bear this sight, and hauled down the flag. A tug was sent by the Confederates to take off the prisoners from the burning wreck, but, unfortunately, some sharpshooters from the shore still kept up a hot fire upon the Southern vessels. In consequence of this the _Merrimac_ fired another broadside into the sinking _Congress_, and killed many more of her crew. The _Congress_, being deserted, still burned on till darkness fell, and the ruddy glare lit up the moving waters as if they had been a sea of blood. At midnight the fire reached her magazine, and with a thunder of explosion the _Congress_ blew up into a myriad fragments. The Northern warship _Minnesota_ had also grounded, so had the frigate _St. Lawrence_, and the _Merrimac_, while it was still light enough to aim a gun, steamed towards them to see what little attention she could bestow upon them. The _Merrimac_ was, perhaps, a little overconfident in her coat of mail. Anyhow, she risked receiving a broadside at very short range from the heavy guns of the _Minnesota_. A shot seems to have entered her porthole and damaged her machinery, for she hesitated, put about, and returned to safe anchorage behind Craney Island. Meanwhile, a very natural terror was gnawing at the hearts of the Federal crews and garrison in Hampton Roads. They had listened to the sounds of the conflict and seen the dire results in wonder, almost in despair. The _Merrimac_, they said, was invulnerable. Not a shot could pierce her. On Sunday morning she would return and destroy the whole Federal fleet at her leisure. She would shell Newport News Point and Fortress Monroe, at the entrance of Hampton Roads, set everything on fire, and drive the garrisons from their guns. Nay, as the telegraph wires flashed the news to Washington, it was foreseen with an agony of horror that the _Merrimac_ might ascend the Potomac and lay the capital in ashes. Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, were in a state of panic. No one knew what might not follow. It was a blind horror of a new and unknown danger. For the experience of one hour had rendered the shipbuilding of the past a scorn and a laughing-stock. Wooden frigates might go to the scrap-heap now. With the _Cumberland_ had gone down morally all the great navies of Europe. A new order had to be found for ship and battery, and steel must take the place of planks of oak.