Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The destruction of the Merrimac . . .

. . . releases the formidable squadron which has been held at Fortress Monroe to guard against her depredations.  She is no longer the skeleton in our national closet.  The Monitor and other iron-clad gunboats are now at liberty to finish the work of repossessing the United States forts on the coast.  It would not be surprising to hear of her in a few days at Wilmington N C., clearing the way for the destruction of the railroad communication between Virginia and the Southern coast.  Or she may appear under the walls of Sumter, or at the Charleston docks.  There is much that she could do, and she should not remain inactive for a single day.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Friday Morning, May 16, 1862, p. 2

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