The Fight in Hampton Roads

In giving place to all the details which have yet reached us of the Naval combat in Hampton Roads on Saturday and the following night, which (though the Rebel assailants were ultimately driven back to their hiding places – the Merrimac, their best ship, apparently in a sinking condition) will inevitably be regarded by the impartial as a National defeat and disgrace, it seems our duty to recall some antecedent and not very creditable facts.

The Rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter on the 12th of April last – and the fact was known throughout the country forthwith.  It was intended and understood to be a challenge of the Nation by the Slave Power to mortal combat.  Norfolk, as by far the greatest Naval arsenal in the Slave States – perhaps in the country – was of course in imminent danger.  It was within less than a day’s passage of Washington and Baltimore, not two days from Philadelphia and New York.  On the 17th (five days after fire was opened on Sumter) the Virginia Convention pretended to take their State out of the Union, and, though the act was passed subject to ratification by a popular vote, Gov. Letcher immediately issued a Proclamation of adherence to the Southern Confederacy.  On the 19th, the Virginia traitors obstructed Elizabeth River below Norfolk, so as to prevent the passage of the National vessels from the Navy Yard down into Hampton Roads, and so out to sea.  On the 20th (eight days after the opening of fire on Sumter) the Navy Yard was hastily dismantled by our officers in charge of it, the Cumberland sloop-of-war, (sunk by the Rebels last Saturday) towed out, while the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Columbus, Merrimac, Raritan, Columbia, Germantown, Plymouth, Dolphin, and the United States – all ships of war of various sizes, from a three-decker down – were (it was reported) scuttled and set on fire to keep them from falling into the hands of the Rebels.  We do not learn that any attack was made by the Rebels (who were certainly in very moderate force,) nor that any effort was made to arm the workmen in and about the Navy Yard – who were naturally, instinctively loyal – nor to appeal to the loyalty of the vicinage.  It is popularly understood that Taliaferro, the Rebel chief, was drunk, so that he failed to attack, and let our Navy officers have things very much their own way.  That, with more power on hand than they knew how even to destroy, they might have blown every vessel to atoms in three hours, is at least a very strong presumption.  The Merrimac – Which inflicted so stinging a blow on us last Saturday – was one of those vessels.

Of course, we do not know that those Navy officers who have not yet openly affiliated with the traitors, did not here do their best.  We only know that somebody ought to have been put on trial for their shameful, disastrous miscarriage – by which the Nation lost and the Rebellion gained twenty-five hundred cannon and more military and naval material than could be bought for Ten Millions of Dollars.  We do not know that any one yet  has been, though nearly eleven months have elapsed since the disaster, and the then commandant at the Yard, still wears the uniform and pockets the pay of a U. S. officer.  That this is as it should not be is our very decided opinion.

The Merrimac, it was soon announced, was raised by the Rebels, and was being iron plated and otherwise fitted for the destruction of some of our vessels in the Roads.  She has been so fitting ever since, almost within sight of our fleet.  Several times she has been announced on the eve of coming out.  Once or twice it was given out by the Rebels that she was a failure; and, as a Western man has said, they “would rather lie on a twelve months’ note than tell the truth for cash,” this should have incited to greater vigilance.  If we had not the proper vessels on hand to resist her, they should have been hurried up at least six months ago.  Yet when she does at last see fit to put in an appearance, lo! One of our principal war steamships have been lying in the Roads disabled for four months and cannot get near her, while the only other ship fit to engage her gets aground – in water that her officers should know as thoroughly as their own cabins – and cannot be brought into action while two of our noble frigates are torn to pieces, one of them sunk, the other captured and burned, and some two or three hundred of our brave tars killed, drowned, or captured.

We do not attempt to fix the blame of these disasters.  Possibly, there is no one to blame; but the people will not believe it in advance of thorough scrutiny.  We respectfully call upon the commander-in-chief of the army and Navy to have this whole business sifted to the bottom. – {N. Y. Tribune.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 15, 1862, p. 2