"I am sure, gentlemen," he said to the Cabinet, "that monster is now on
her way to Washington. In my opinion we will have a shell from one of
her big guns in the White House before we leave this room!"
Lincoln was profoundly depressed but refused to believe the cause of the
Union could thus be completely lost at a single blow from a nondescript,
iron raft. Yet it was only too easy to see that the moral effect of this
victory would be crushing on public opinion.
The wires to Washington were hot with frantic calls for help. New York
was ready to surrender at the first demand. So utter was the
demoralization at Fortress Monroe, the one absolutely impregnable fort
on the Atlantic coast, that the commander had already determined to
surrender in answer to the first shot the _Merrimac_ should fire.
The preparations for moving McClellan's army to the Virginia Peninsula
for the campaign to capture Richmond were suddenly halted. Two hundred
thousand men must rest on their arms until this crisis should pass. All
orders issued to the Army of the Potomac were now made contingent on the
destruction of the iron monster lying in Hampton Roads.
By one of the strangest coincidences in history the United States Navy
had completed an experiment in floating iron at precisely the same
moment.
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