McClellan's army lost two thousand two hundred and seventy-five
men in this encounter, McGruder less than a thousand. Had Johnston
concentrated his fifty thousand men on this line McClellan would never
have taken it, and the only iron-clad the South possessed might have
been saved.
The daring Commander of the _Merrimac_, while McClellan was encamped
before Yorktown, had appeared in Hampton Roads and challenged the whole
Federal fleet again to fight. The _Monitor_ had taken refuge under the
guns of Fortress Monroe and refused to come out. The ugly duckling of
the Confederacy, in plain view of the whole Federal fleet and witnessed
by French and English vessels, captured three schooners and carried them
into port as prizes of war.
When Norfolk was abandoned, the iron-clad drew so much water she could
only ascend the James by lightening her until her wooden sides showed
above the water line. She was therefore set on fire and blown up on
Johnston's retreat uncovering the banks of the James to the artillery of
McClellan.
The Federal fleet could now dash up the James.
They did this immediately on the news of the destruction of the
Confederate iron-clad.
On May fifteenth, the _Galena_, the _Aroostook_, the _Monitor_, the
_Port Royal_, and the _Stevens_ steamed up the river without opposition
to Drury's Bluff within twelve miles of the Capital of the South.
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