An American history . n tomake a long pause at Corinth, and wait to be attacked. 604. Contemporaneous Eastern Events. During all thisstern fighting along the Mississippi, the Confederate wardepartment was unable to send assistance from the fact shows the extent of the Federal attack. From thestart the Confederate armies formed two great forces, easternand western. Each group was so closely pressed by its op-ponents that President Davis dared not draw off any part ofone to assist the other. This state of things continued in themain throughout the war. The Richmond government was THE W
An American history . n tomake a long pause at Corinth, and wait to be attacked. 604. Contemporaneous Eastern Events. During all thisstern fighting along the Mississippi, the Confederate wardepartment was unable to send assistance from the fact shows the extent of the Federal attack. From thestart the Confederate armies formed two great forces, easternand western. Each group was so closely pressed by its op-ponents that President Davis dared not draw off any part ofone to assist the other. This state of things continued in themain throughout the war. The Richmond government was THE WAR 427 always directing an eastern and a western army and almostalways each force was too busy on its own field to give aid tothe other. 605. The Ironclads. In 1862 there were notable Confeder-ate successes in the East. They began with the destructionof the Federal vessels at Hampton Roads by a new sort ofwarship, the armored ram Virginia. This vessel had oncebeen the United States frigate Merrimac. It had fallen into. MONITOR AND VIRGINIA the hands of the Confederates, had been remodeled, andsheathed with iron. Steaming from Norfolk, it attacked afleet of old-style wooden ships lying in Hampton Roads.^ Without injury to herself the Virginia sank the old warshipCumberland and disabled the Congress. However, the Con-federates had not been alone in the attempt to design newships of war. The North at the same time was doing the samething. A Swedish engineer, John Ericsson, had built the 1 The United States had kept possession of Fortress Monroe, which formedan important naval base. 428 AMERICAN HISTORY Monitor, a small ironclad, sitting low in the water, with arevolving armored turret which sheltered her powerful can-non. The Monitor arrived in Hampton Roads just at thecrucial moment. On March 9 the two ironclads met. Theycircled about each other in a fierce duel, and more than oncethe mouths of their cannon almost touched. Though neithervessel was seriously damaged, the Virginia
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