Back to Norfolk went the injured Merrimac.  Here she was put into the dry-dock and hastily repaired.  After that had been done, she steamed down to the old fighting-ground on two or three occasions, and challenged her small antagonist.  The Monitor did not accept the challenge.  If any accident had happened to her the rest of the fleet would have been lost, and it was deemed wisest to hold her back for emergencies.

On the 10th of May the Confederates marched out of Norfolk.  On the 11th the Merrimac was blown up, and only her disabled hull remained as a trophy to the victors.  As to her condition and fighting powers, one of the engineers who had charge of the repairs upon her said,—­

“A shot from the Monitor entered one of her ports, lodged in the backing of the other side, and so shivered her timbers that she never afterwards could be made seaworthy.  She could not have been kept afloat for twelve hours, and her officers knew it when they went out and dared the Monitor to fight her.  It was a case of pure bluff; we didn’t hold a single pair.”

The combat we have recorded was perhaps the most important in the history of naval warfare.  It marked a turning-point in the construction of the monarchs of the deep, by proving that the future battles of the sea must be fought behind iron walls.

STEALING A LOCOMOTIVE.

On a fine day in April, 1862, a passenger-train drew out from Marietta, Georgia, bound north.  Those were not days of abundant passenger travel in the South, except for those who wore the butternut uniform and carried muskets, but this train was well filled, and at Marietta a score of men in civilian dress had boarded the cars.  Soldierly-looking fellows these were too, not the kind that were likely to escape long the clutch of the Confederate conscription.

Eight miles north of Marietta the train stopped at the station of Big Shanty, with the welcome announcement of “Ten minutes for breakfast.”  Out from the train, like bees from the hive, swarmed the hungry passengers, and made their way with all speed to the lunch-counter, followed more deliberately by conductor, engineer, and brakesmen.  The demands of the lunch-counter are of universal potency; few have the hardihood to resist them; that particular train was emptied in the first of its ten minutes of grace.

Yet breakfast did not seem to appeal to all upon the train.  The Marietta group of civilians left the train with the others, but instead of seeking the refreshment-room, turned their steps towards the locomotive.  No one noticed them, though there was a Confederate camp hard by the station, well filled with raw recruits, and hardly a dozen steps from the engine a sentinel steadily walked his beat, rifle on shoulder.