June 1, 1861

Got a letter from my brother, John 
Baskerville Hall, over in Norfolk the other
day.  We call him "Bass" (like the fish) and 
he works in the shipbuilding yards there.  
Well, when the War was declared, the yankee 
navy boxed up everything and went back north.  
There was a couple of ships that was in the 
middle of being built and the yankees couldn't 
take them so they took them out in the harbor 
and sunk them.

Well, seems like the harbor warn't too deep and 
the ships didn't sink too far, so one of the 
ships is going to be pumped out and refloated.  
It's name was going to be the Merrimac and it 
was designed to be a sailing ship.  John says 
they're going to strip off all the sails, put a 
steam engine in 'er and then hang iron plates on 
it and they're gonna rename it the CSS Virginia.  
He said CSS stands for Confederate States Ship.

They're building a little low house of a thing 
on top of the ship and the walls of it are going 
to be sloped back like the roof of a normal 
house.  That way, with the iron plates hanging 
on it, they figger cannonballs will just bounce 
up and off of it.  I aint too sure how they're 
going to get a iron coated boat to float.  If it 
floats, it'll probley ride real low down in the
water.

The house is going to have little windows in the 
sides for their cannons to shoot out of, but the 
most important thing is going to be a thing 
called a ram.  That's a big iron thing that 
sticks out on the front of the boat.  The idea is 
to drive the boat up against the side of another 
ship - real hard like.  They figger the iron 
thing will go through the side of the other boat
and cause it to sink.

My brother says the steam engine they're puttin', 
in this thing is too small and it will be slow as 
molasses in January.  But its the only one they 
got.  He said too, that the rudder (that's the 
thing that steers the boat) is too small and that  
they won't be able to turn it around in a ten 
acre field.

I read in the newspaper about a Swedish feller 
named Ericson who has designed another iron 
coated boat and has sold one to the yankee 
government - called it a Monitor.  I don't know 
if thats its name or the name of what it is.  
Where the Virginia is going to be only iron 
coated on the part that's above the water, this 
thing is going to be iron all over.  Going to 
have a big round house thing on top about the 
size of a hog pen that turns. (I think they 
called it a gun turret.)  It will only have 1 
gun - but it's supposed to be a big gun.  This 
thing was designed to sit out in the ocean and 
shoot at  the forts along the shore.  They 
figger a forts cannons can't hurt it cause it's 
iron. Besides,  it's top is flat and it will set 
real low in the water and they said it would be 
tolerable hard to hit cause there ain't much of 
it showing.

Its going to have a iron steam engine too, and 
fans that blow fresh air in to the men inside 
of it.  I figger with all that iron, this thing 
has got to sink right off.  But, it ought to be 
something to see if these things ever fight.

The Virginia is bigger and has got more guns, 
but it's slower and can only fire its cannons 
when the sides of the ship are facing what 
they're shooting at. This Monitor thing can 
fire its gun no matter where it's at, cause the 
turret will turn so they can aim just the gun 
without having to turn the boat.

Yessir, that ought to be something to see.