From Fort Monroe

FORT MONROE, March 10.

The Minnesota yesterday returned to her usual station, at the entrance to the Roads.  She is again ready for action.  The Monitor came down early this a. m., and was greeted with enthusiastic cheers by the various vessels in the harbor.  Gen. Wool and staff, and assistant Secretary of the navy Fox, went on board this a. m.  She was found not to be damaged in the slightest degree, and is as well prepared as ever for another conflict.  Her performance was perfectly satisfactory to hear officers and men.  They all speak of her in the highest terms of praise.

The gunboat White Hall took fire at two  o’clock this a. m., and was totally destroyed.

The British sloop of war Rinaldina arrived here this a. m.  She is from off Charleston.  No news.

The latest estimate of the number killed on the Congress is 50, including 3 officers – Lieut. Joe Smith commanding, acting master Thomas Moore, and coast pilot William Rhodes.  Capt. Wm. Smith commanded the Congress until recently transferred.  27 are reported wounded, and 40 were taken prisoners, none of them officers.

On board the Cumberland the Rev. Mr. Laerhardt, the Chaplain, was drowned and the master’s mate, Harrington, was killed; but few of the wounded escaped to the shore.  The number of killed and wounded is about 150.

In the White Hall, third assistant engineer Andrew Nesbit, Robert Waugh and Chas. P. O’Connor, seamen were killed and two or three wounded.  On the Dragon, which received a shot in her bow, two men were wounded – no officers.  The William Wheldon received a shot in her boiler, and the Rescue was damaged in her machinery.  The former was towed to Baltimore by the Adelaide.  The Minnesota lost six men killed and seventeen wounded, not including any officers, so far as known.  She is said to have received quite a number of shots.

The Roanoke received but two shots, and little damage was occasioned by them.  No casualty occurred on board except the falling of a man from aloft.

It is generally believed now that the Merrimac must have received serious damage.  The testimony of some that she was considerably tilted on one side as she went behind Sewall’s Point.

The Secretary of the Treasury has awarded the contract for the twenty million legal tender treasury notes equally to the American and the National Bank Note Companies of New York.

The following is copied from an official report of Gen. Wool dated to-day:

“Nothing of importance has occurred to-day.  The chief engineer of the Monitor says that three balls from that vessel passed through the Merrimac.  The monitor suffered very little although she was struck [twenty-three times.]

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 12, 1862, p. 2