Thieves Of Mercy

THE CAPTURE OF NORFOLK

The reader might well find the notion of Abraham Lincoln himself boarding a tug and scouting out a suitable place to land troops at Norfolk quite unbelievable, and understandably so. It is so unbelievable that it would not have been a part of this work of fiction if it had not actually happened in fact.

On a few occasions during the war, Lincoln took it upon himself to be a hands-on Commander-in-Chief, appearing personally at the front lines and even on occasion directing troop movements. To this end he had more motive and opportunity than any other President, save, perhaps, for James Madison. America’s wars, as a rule, did not take place within a day’s journey from the White House. Nor have many Presidents been saddled with the kind of lethargic and incompetent military leadership that Lincoln suffered.

In early May of 1862, with McClellan stalled at Yorktown, unwilling to advance against a Rebel army half his strength and howling for more men, Lincoln took a steamer to Fortress Monroe to see for himself what was going on. With him went Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase.

The men did not come as tourists. No sooner had they arrived than Lincoln began making decisions for Admiral Louis Golds-borough, who was not always quick to make decisions himself. Lincoln ordered Galena and Monitor to proceed up the James River and clear the way for Union traffic. On hearing that Norfolk was being abandoned, Lincoln ordered a bombardment of Sewell’s Point to test the defenses there.

Lincoln and his party boarded a tug and watched the shelling from Rip Raps. Satisfied that Norfolk could be taken, Lincoln and Stanton scouted out a suitable landing place for Union troops. The ironclad Monitor participated in most of the action, and her presence was considered essential to prevent the Virginia from interfering with the forces on the ground. On several occasions the Virginia sallied forth and showed herself to Monitor, but they did not fight. Reading the official reports from both sides, it becomes clear that the commanders of both vessels each felt it was the other ship that declined combat.

On May 10, Union Major General John Wool with four regiments of infantry landed at the spot of Lincoln’s choosing and marched unopposed into Norfolk. The fleeing Rebels had set the navy yard on fire, just as the fleeing Federals had the year before.

As it happened, the Norwegian corvette Norvier did indeed show up in Hampton Roads at this time, bearing the Norwegian minister, though, for the sake of literary convenience, the author may have shuffled the date of her arrival by a few days, no more.

The final act in the life of that mighty ironclad was pretty much as portrayed in this book. With no port left to her in the Norfolk area, Tattnall ordered her lightened in the hope of getting her up to Richmond, where she could be safe, or at least could participate in the defense of the Confederate capital.

It was only when it was too late that the pilots, Parrish and Wright, explained that what they had repeatedly told the admiral-that a Virginia raised to eighteen feet of draft from twenty-two could make it to Richmond-did not apply with a steady westerly wind. The motives that Tattnall divined for this deception, as portrayed in the book, are taken directly from his subsequent report to Stephen Mallory regarding the loss of the ship.

It is certainly true that, let loose in Hampton Roads with nothing to lose, Virginia could have done extraordinary damage. Though Tattnall did not think Parrish and Wright to be traitors, they might well be considered heroes of the Union Navy.