Newspapers / King’s Weekly (Greenville, N.C.) / March 29, 1895, edition 1 / Page 1
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KIXNG-B WEEK Xi x Successor -bo -tlxe Xxxcie:. OLUME I- V GREEN VIL LEj V. C MARCH 29, 189.. JOTTINGS. DtJEL OF IRONCLADS A Pennsylvanian, who liad spoken disrespectfully of Vir ginia women was decently and deservedly cowlnded by the la dies of Alexandria, Ta. .When ilie law cannot take hold, it is iirht that justice be done. Walker, the Kansas negio appointed by President Karri son consul in Madagascar, has been sentenced to twe.'ty years imprisonment by a French court martial. And thus the mighty are fallen. In Kansas it is principally the foreign and negro women who have registered prepara toi v to voting. That's the kind of blessing- female ONE WHO SAW THE FAMOUS BATTLE. DESCRIBES IT- The Victories of the Merki- MAC STItlVK TEKROK TO Til K LlnCOLX CaMI X ET A GliAPHIC Story the IIistokic Fight. blessing- would bring. suffrage Fncle Sam now has two or three war scares on hand. . Per haps there wTill yet be a chance for those Pops who are so anx ions to shoulder their shot guns. The funds of the whiskey trast have been found $1,924,1 lit) short. To make up the short age the whiskev and not the stock, will undergo thewateri.ig process. The cashier of the Continen tal Clothing company of Boston lias been arrested for embezzling about $ (),(H)0. ' Embezzle is ev idently the Bontonese of steal. South Carolina is to be af tlicted with another new politi cal party that is being organ ized. South Oarolina has much to bear.- . : . : Gov McKinley is. down in (xeorgia for his health and a Presidential boom. His health is much governed by his pros pects. Virginia saw North Carolina's Douglasism, and .has. gone it ne better in the Teamoh case. Virginia alwavs wants to lead. Madam Lease has a prospect f a mavoraltv in a Kansas town. Tier plans are generally prospective. Thirty-three years ago I was one of a crowd that stood upon the wharf at Xcrfolk anil cheered the confederate iron clad Virginia, bet ter known as the L Merriiiac," as she passed down the Elizabeth river to begin the series of engagements that made her the terror of the federal navv and forced the world to recog nize its fleets. When the federal foices evacuated the Norfolk navy yard in 18GI they attempted to dps troy what they could not carry away ind set on fire and scuttled the steam-frigate Mernmac. Her uiper works were burned, but her hull was intact, and th confederates raised her and convert ed her into an iron-clad. She was covered m.dships with a roof 170 feet longbnilt at an angle of 45 degrees and constructed of twenty-inch heart pine, covered by four-inch oak. Upon this xvood packing there were two layers of iron plates two inches thick and eight inches wide, one laid horizon tally and the othr vertically, bolted through the xvood and clinched on the inside. This roof or shield ex tended from the water line to a heigth of si'en feet over the gun deck, and its two ends were rounded so as to alimv the manipulation ot two pivot guns to be used as bow a-id stern chasers. Over the tun deck was a light grating, making a promenade about twenty feet wide. A pilot house was placed forward ot the smokestack, built of the same material as the shield. Her bow was armed belcw water with a cast iron prow four feet long, to be used as a rain. Her weakest element was her motive power, her old engines and boilers, which haJ been con demned before she was sunk, but there was neither time nor facdity to build new ones- Her ordinance consisted of ten guns, two seven-inch S eel banded brooke rifle?, mounted as pivot guns at the bow and stern, two six-inch rifles ot the same, pat tern and six nine-inch smooth-bore broad si le guns. Her commander was Commodore Franklin Buchan iiii,one of the ablest and bravest ofli cers of the old service, from which he had resigned to enter tne con fed erate navv. Her second in command was Lieu tenant Catesby Ap II.' Jones, distin guished for his professional ability and-personal courage. She had a full complement of sub ordinate officers selected for their special fitness and a crew of .'500 men, most of whom had volunteered fro n the armv for the occasion- The emergency of the service al lowed no tune for testing her ener gies or drilling the crew. Officers and men were strangers to each oth er, ar.d when she started down the river she was an experiment, the suc cess of which qo man coo Id foretell. Whether she would prove an impreg nable fortress or an iron-bound col fine experience alone could deter mine. THE FIELD OP RATTLE. Leaving the navy yard at 11 o'clock on Saturday morning, .March 8, 1SG1 the Merrimac made tier way down the Elizabeth aUut eight miles to its mouth, where the Confederates had erected land batte rieson its east bauk. Herejthe Eli zabeth enters Hampton UoaUs, a broad body of water formed by the Elisabeth and James rivers., which empties into Chesapeake bay about four miles below Se well's I'oint through a channel about a mile wide, on the north side of which is Fortress Monroe at Oldom, and on the soutn the Hip Haps, an arti ficial island, on which was a federal battery. In this channel, ofl Fortress Monroe and under its guns, lay the greater part o!" the federal fleet, while further up the Houds, at the mouth of James river, and about four miles above Sc well's Poins on the other 6idn of the Hoads. tin Cumberland and Congress were an chored ofr New Port News I'onif, blockading James river. THE FIKST DAY'S FIGHT. When the Merrima' reached mouth of the Elizabeth river, had the choice ot going down roads ami attacking the fleet off Fortress Monroe, or going up and across the roads to encounter the Congrfss ami the Cum'.erlaud off Newport News. Commodore Buch anan wisely chose the hitter, and Merrimac. reversing her engine, backeu clear of the Cumberland, but at the expense of her prow, which was broken oil and blt in the Ikw els f the Luinlh-rlatid- Freed fiom her wounded adversai v. the iron cdad passed her, and as she did so the guns of the tw vessels, nearly touching envh other, tired simulta neous broadsides. The decks of lh Cumberland ware covered with the dead and wounded, but the Merri mac was not unscathed. Two shots from the Cuinberlanu had entered her jKrts while opened for firing, breaking ofl two of her gnus nt the muzzle, killing two men and wound ing sex era'.. Her boats, anchor and flagsfalV xverc shut axvay, and her smokestack riddled. Besides this, the loss (if In:- prow caused her to spring a leak The Merrimac kept on up Jaim-s rives far enough to turn, then came down to finish her work. The fate of the Cnmlcrland was sealed anil sh xvas fast sinking, but she kept up the hopeless fight with a gallantry beyond all prais-.. Her commander was Lieutenant George l Morris, who proved himself a hero that day, and he wits nobly see onded by his brave officers and crew. When culled on to funender by the Confederate commander, he he ! replied, "1 11 sink, but Til never sur- th the i render. To lie font i nurd. ritOM ItOAN TO ItOAOKK. Wilkes Counts has an Enoch Ar- den casein John Hobson, who after I a txveiitv wars absence. returned a cial term of Davidson .Superior the Congress rl ;-niii.eiicinR July 1st, and ad htu xtasb- I atrial o hemwell for killing Dr c. . i 1 avne will be the first case. i lasiug im- fcwuiu u . une.s ,o a.oiu . g,,ol, Jim f)Un(1 h9 w,u. a shoal ,n the middle of the roaaf, llsll le,.n man:i.,i lo Vin H3Ve, kt own us t lie middle ground, he t jjfuen ears. made direct lx for the two federal ! , , , shiiw. It was a beau! fill balmv i .... ....-, .,ur(n,. T day, more like May than March. The sailors aboard and the Cumberland had ing their clothes for Sunday, and the riggigs of the two ships were lull of garments hung out to dry, j while the crew lounged about the; decks basking ii t i.e sunshine. I '1 lie appearance of the Merrimac j wrdutiht an instantaneous transfor mation of the scene. The drums ' beat to quarters and the men took j Mjeir places at their guns. All j knew that the mysterious stranger j that approached, moving ucross ih? j IOaUS IlKC an uillllliv inmecnj, nns r their long expected foe, and the crisis of their late wa3 upon them. Meanwhile the Merrimac hld her way grimly and silently across the roads, accompanied by two little gunboats, the Beaufort, Lieutenant Barker, and the Ualeigh, Lieuten ant Alexander, each mounting one gun. As she approached the Con gress she opened on her with her ! bowgun, and xvhen within three hundred yards delivered a broad side and received one in returh. I'assing the Congress, the Merrimac made lor the Cumberland. Tha' ship reeeived her with a full broad side from her heavy guns that would have sunk a wooden vessel, but against her iron roof the solid shot rebounded as rubber halls from a bricK wall. Driven through the water, tu-der a full bead of stam, tlie .Merrimac shuck me vuujh"ci laud under her starboard fore chan vele with her iron prow, tnen the A Watauga man slipped down a mountain during the suowy and mountsin during the snow, and landed la a neighbor's wootl pile half a mile away. The Tie I'amunky Indians of Virginia having a scaocity of squaws xfant Cherokee wives from North Carolina, and negotiations are in progress. A negro woman sixty five years old conyicted of murdering her husband has been sent to the peni le ntiary for life from Hertford county. H F Ciregory, of (ireenboro, a postal clerk, ha been promoted to postoflice iuspector at a salary of r-KXX). Josiah Turner has been paid f4.03o.52 as balance due him for public printing done years ago. Whiskey has cost a man in Char lotte f2,.'U'J.50 fines for drunks nd downs, ir the last fexr years. Four (Iranvillr County opnlists have issued a card announcing their withdrawal from that party. W C Thome a well-known law ver of Halifax county, died at his home in Enfield on the 23rd. Gen Wade Hampton was the ora tor at the unveiling of the Benton ville mouument. Charlott- is to hare a new Court House to cost 50,000.
King’s Weekly (Greenville, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
March 29, 1895, edition 1
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