The _Merrimac_ was raised. A board was appointed to draw plans and
estimate the cost of the conversion of the vessel into a powerful,
floating, iron-clad battery. In the crippled condition of the Norfolk
Navy Yard the task was tremendous and the expense would be great.
The President ordered the work prosecuted with the utmost vigor. Day and
night the ring of hammers on heavy iron echoed over the quiet harbor of
Norfolk. Blacksmiths were forging the most terrible ship of war that
ever sailed the seas. If the hopes of her builders should be realized,
the navy of the North would be swept from the ocean and the proudest
ships of the world be reduced to junk in a day.
CHAPTER XXI
THE GATHERING CLOUDS
Disaster followed disaster for the South now in swift succession. The
United States Navy, not content with the supremacy of the high seas, set
to work with determination to build a war fleet on the great rivers of
the West which could pierce the heart of the lower South.
Before the South could possibly secure arms and ammunition with which to
equip the army of Albert Sidney Johnston, these gunboats were steaming
down the Ohio and Mississippi bearing thousands of troops armed, drilled
and led by stark, game-fighting generals from the West.
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