tore peatos are also -- and i use tore peatos in the 19th seven temperaturery sense -- using spar tore peatos to destroy the merrimack is also extremely popular. this idea, which in a smaller way, is actually used during the civil war if you think of curbings attack on the arbormarl, that is how it is sung by using a much more scaled-down version of this torpedo. the monitor could eliminate it that way. you also have alan smith writes in with an extremely detailed plan. i don't know how it would work. the monitor would be equipped with this burr torpedo that has prongs on it and would be basically shoved into the

merrimac's hull. how it would be possible in 1862, i don't know. you have basically a motor attached to this little torpedo where it would drill itself into its enemy and the explosion, of course, would destroy it. there is also what i call the flying torpedo. you fire the cannon ball over the merrimac with just enough powder to skim the roof. that would pull the torpedo through the air right up to the merrimac's hull and once again you could destroy her that way. even from the interior department shall the census bureau, you have joseph kennedy writing in with several beautiful illustrations that the monitor needs to tow a torpedo and release it at some point in the channel and as the merrimac comes down, it would sail over

this torpedo and the monitor again would discharge it from a safe distance. there is also the idea of having a torpedo on chains. you have two tugs chained together. the torpedos are in the middle. when the merrimac came down again, these two tugs would sail in the opposite direction and create a gigantic trip wire. also, not terribly practical. speaking of not practical. you have the torpedo in the center and two tugs on the inside and a small boat with several soldiers and several soldiers dressed as women pretending to be a pleasure party. why someone would be sailing in

the middle of a possible naval conflict, i don't know. then, they would, using a telescope, be able to tell when that floating torpedo was getting close to the merrimac. the two tugs would make for the hymns and they would basically pull the torpedo under the merrimac and that would be it. these people usually had more than one good idea per letter. he also said, if you don't like that idea, how about creating a false snout for the monitor. it's loaded with explosives. it somehow hooks on to the merrimac and you destroy it that way. a more simplistic way -- and also using retractable tore peato fences. that's another one that a lot of people write in somehow that you can create this barrier of tore peatos. and the confederates do something similar, for example, in mobile bay. but these are very complicated. they're self-raising and lowering, rather ingenious, if

impractical. the suggestion is made, why not follow the monitor or the merrimac's propeller. let's use basic fishing nets and string fishing nets across the channel. regular nets, rope or chain and these will be sucked into the merrimac's propel or. it will be rendered immobile and a sitting duck. problem solved. in fact, the assistant secretary of the navy, gustavus fox suggests the same idea to admiral goldsboro. what about trailing this and ruining the propeller that way. there aren't enough nets and it is not workable to try to do such a thing to destroy the merrimac that way. submarines are also proposed by

quite a few people that, again, going with your 20,000 leagues under the sea motif, a number of these are very clever and totally impracticable. c.c. coe wrote in and said, do you wish the merrimac destroyed? i can do it but my methods are secret and sub marine. i can do it but i can't tell you. if england assaults our block ade, i can destroy her in one day. the navy did take a chance on a day. the navy did take a chance on a one day. the navy did take a chance on a. the navy did take a chance on a submarine. i should talk about this one for a moment. another individual wrote in saying, how about a glass-bottom

boat that if you can see the little individual there, that this boat would be used to remove torpedos and obstructions from 10:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon on a sunny day, you can see deep in the water to supposedly undue these enemy obstructions and a one-man submarine as well. the one submarine the u.s. government does invest in proposed by brutas devileroi. if you remember warner brothers cartoons, wyle. coyote. villeroi puts on his 18th century sen tus. under occupation, he puts two

words, natural genius. he is quite convinced he is brilliant and his submarine is the alligator. the alligator, at least a prototype of it is built and brought down to hampton roads at one point. it also is not terribly workable. the navy officers who command it find that, yes, it submerges but goes straight to the bottom. it does not float very well, doesn't answer the realm. the alligator is being sent to charleston when it sinks off cape hatteras, very close to where the monitor went down just almost a year before. commando rigs are also very popular. this idea that very level-headed montgomery megs first suggests that we need to take out the merrimac in emergency.

let's put a bunch of men on different ships and have them jump on the merrimac and throw grenades down the smokestack. it is an object of singular fascination by a number of writers who view it as this achilles heel. this fatal link in the rebels armor that could cause immediate destruction if only handled properly. in fact, a number of people write in with this idea, let's send 10 or 50 or whatever number men, some of them wearing india rubber shoes to be able to run up the case mate and carrying hooked ladders, sometimes chisels to somehow take apart the merrimac smokestack and apparently, the confederates aren't going to do anything about this at all. that's what always amazes me and throw powder down the smokestack. in fact, gio barns writes in

with this idea to gideon wells and he asks wells, write back, tell me what you think. well, wells probably doesn't write back, but a waggish clerk writes on the back of the letter, would you like to drop a bomb and run the risk of being money up aloft before your time? nevertheless, this idea that these armchair generals or admirals i should say have the idea a commando could take out the merrimac. in fact, even steel writes in again, with the same idea, his commandos would have cork life belts. once they do their thing, they cannot drown if they fall off or are shoved off. midway through his letter, you can almost sort of imagine the

wheeling turning when he is saying this. he is saying this. there is a real risk of that happening. in fact, lincoln himself had been warned about this by none other than john warden, the wounded commander of the monitor. warden was afraid this sort of thing could be done. commandos could jump on the monitor's deck, wedge the turret and capture the vessel doing that. lincoln issues an order saying the monitor is not to go skylarking up to norfolk unattended. it is such a valuable weapon we can not risk it willy nilly. there are people offering to destroy the merrimac themselves. they are sort of, what i would say, 19th century forerunners of blackwater. they're private contractors that

say, for enough money, i will blow up the merrimack. they are specific about their pricing, too. usually, about $500,000. in fact, brutus de villeroi writing in saying, i will blow up enemy ships and you will pay me whatever the ships were worth. another french man, ludwick dehoo says i am in france but if the government pays for my expenses, to the ship, for me to command the ship, i get to pick my own crew and if i get killed in u.s. service, my aged mother gets a $200 pension for life and if i am proven to be incompetent and you fire me, i get 160 acres of land. so it is win/win. he also is rather miffed because he writes to the president and the american council in paris

and doesn't understand why he is not getting a response, much less round-trip tickets. h.k. lawrence writes in and says i will destroy the jamestown within 20 days, $500,000 for the merrimac, $100,000 for the other vessels involved. wells is intrigued enough to say, well, state your plan. he does so again. hamilton tow has the same idea. he also says $500,000 to destroy the merrimack. he apparently sees wells personally and wells turns him down later. a few days later, i writes in, how about $10,000 now and $100,000 when i blow up the merrimac. he cut his price. the navy officers were none too amused by these private

contractors wanting to do what they couldn't. louie goldsboro writes to his friend, gus davis fox saying, what is become of the $100,000 blowing-up man. has his scheme collapsed or is the water too cold? secret inventions are proposed. there are people that write in and say, my invention is so unbelievable, i can't tell you what it is. i can give you a rough outline but i really can't tell you everything. although, it can whip anything afloat. they also insist that i will tell my idea to the president alone. the secretary of war, maybe navy. louie wintebauer writes in and the navy writes back saying, thank you for suggesting your idea.

however, we can not judge it because you gave us no particulars. everyone wants to get in on the act. lincoln gets an unexpected letter from an unexpected source. a pastor from a baptist church in new hampshire, william sousen, who writes in saying, i have perfected an invention of the most marvelous destructive power that can immediately destroy the most powerful warships at a distance. you, sir, may smile at all this and suppose it is only the dream of an excited brain but only a few days are needed to convince the world of its reality. the united states will be given the power to resist all the world's navy. i am fully willing to do a test and will sit back and wait for the offers to flood in. well, if shells and other machines couldn't destroy the

merrimac, it is suggested, how about using one of nature's basic elements, fire, or fire and petroleum. this idea of turning the monitor into some sort of flame-throwing vesuvius. whether it is benzene, coal oil, naphtha, very close to matt tern day gasoline. you put a fire envin on the monitor. you spray the merrimac using fire hoses and the fire of her own guns will ignite it or you use a rocket to do so. in a sense, this will take the enemy out with almost no effort. one of the most elaborate plans is sent in by robert chestboro. you may have come in contact with him. he is the inventor of vaseline.

i was amused to find one of these letters on how to melt the merrimac is written on a company called the brooklyn fire insurance co. apparently, they knew how to start fires. chestboro says, you put a $5,000 gallon tank on the monitor, use a worthington force pump and you spray the merrimack with this fluid. in 15 minutes, her gun deck will be untenable. in 30, there will probably be an explosion. it can be readied in three days and costs about $5,000. i'm aware that the cry of inhumane warfare will be raised.

but he says the object is to only induce surrender, that as soon as the rebels surrender, then the monitor can switch to spraying water and it will wash the flames off. again, you will achieve your ends. if fire couldn't be used, how about live steam. there are several people that suggest if you want a dead iron clad, you inject live steam and do similar, have hoses attached to the monitor steam drum or a special extra boiler and spray live steam through the merrimac's gun ports. if steam is not practical, let's use plain water. the smokestack was an object of fascination. you use a pump and direct these

jets of water. i am imagining the water like one of the fire boats in new york harbor with water spraying out everywhere. in this case, it is either naphtha or water. if we can get water to go down the merrimac smokestacks, ten gallons will blow out the furnace doors, scalding everyone within reach and no doubt the confederates would surrender in a great hurry. con federal would surrender i a there was also the fear that what's good for the rebel good might be good for the rebel gander. people write in with all different stratagems about how to go about destroying the merrimac. some offer basic ideas that maybe they had thought of. some say, let's use a giant net as if the merrimac is some sort of large guppy that it can be scooped up. you have two tugs with this

netting and you can grab it that way. swarm and sink, i have already mentioned. also, to use, again, sort of a chain lasso that you fire this grappling hook over the merrimac and capture it that way. you have two individuals, edwin post and samuel mitchels write in with this grappling hook attachment that latch on to the merrimac and hammer her into situation that way. or, there was the cradling option. again, you use this grappling hook and a chain. you shoot it over the merrimac. it latches a hold. according to its author, jai miller, you could rock the merrimac back and forth until water starts poring in and it

surrendering or sinks. he is not shy about his idea. he says, let this rough suggestion be well studied, reminding gideon wells how sim in taking on goliath. c.l. pasco has a crazier idea which i call dump and thinking. what you do is you have 20 large coop on the prow of this gigantic steamer -- again, look how small merrimac is in comparison. and that you ram the merrimac these large wheeled cannon fall on one side, dragging with them these other cannon which fall on the other side and basically, like a large dump truck, you would sink the merrimac using basically just excess weight. but as i said, there were fears that the confederates could use basically these exact same

tactics. you have a number of worried northerners writing in saying, can the monitor defend itself against a vessel that has superior steam power? most of the northern public did not realize the merrimac's engines were barely able to move it, much less this idea that the merrimac is going to shoot these grappling hooks over the monitor and drag it back to norfolk. and then the rebels would have both ironclads and then the union cause would be lost. in fact, there is an anonymous letter from norfolk that's sent to lincoln saying that this diabolical plan is under way and that "take warning in time." in fact, there was some reality to this. supposedly, there were confederate attempts or ideas floated that the confederates would attempt to board the

"monitor," to wedge the turret, and then to use tarps to cover the pilot house and other openings and pour in chloroform. that somehow the union crew would all be put to sleep and the confederates would capture the ship that way. again, supposing that nothing else could possibly go wrong with this particular scheme. but, of course, this never happens. the monitor and the merrimac never officially engage again. in fact, it's only fitting that, really, the end of the merrimac comes partially at the instigation of abraham lincoln. lincoln had received all these letters asking, advising, cajoling him, and lincoln himself comes down to hampton roads on may the 6th to survey the military situation. and he and secretary solomon p.

chase and stanton will actually cruise around hampton roads. and chase believes he's found a spot where the union army can land to capture norfolk. and, of course, once norfolk's gone, the confederate ship is untenable. and lincoln orders this attempt to be made. in fact, lincoln actually gets to see the merrimac come down the river to investigate some shelling that the union maybe is doing, and there's conflicting reports. the union reports say that merrimac shows up, we withdrew trying to lure her further down so that vanderbilt and the other big rams could get a shot at her, whereas, the confederates say, well, the union saw the merrimac coming and fled. they all went to hide under the guns of fortress monroe. the union landing does take place, norfolk does fall, and on

may 11th -- on may 11th, the confederates blow up the merrimac. in fact, solomon p. chase, who finds it sometimes reluctant to praise abraham lincoln writes to his daughter saying, if lincoln had not come down, the merrimac would probably still be as great a terror as previously. lincoln's presence and his forceful insistence that something be done actually garnered results. but the ghost of the merrimac comes back to haunt the union after the end of the war. again, we think merrimac's blown up, end of story. that's not really the end of the story because one of the other things that i've run across in my wanderings through the national archives, the federal government has three contracts after the war with salvage firms to do something about the wreck of the merrimac, which is sort of blocking the elizabeth river's shipping channel.

apparently, two of the contracts fall through, for whatever reason, and the third contract, which is apparently executed and finished by may 18, 1871, the salvage outfit is not terribly happy. they basically don't make any money at all. they bring up about 30 tons of wrought iron which largely gets sold for souvenirs, but again, they weren't terribly happy that they thought it would be a much more lucrative operation than it turned out. what was left of the hull and everything was left, but most of the iron was brought up. well, the one portion of this paper that i regret not having to give to you is the confederate response. one thing i really wanted to see is if people in the confederacy are coming up with similar lunatic ideas of how to deal with the monitor. and unfortunately, most of those records were destroyed when richmond fell and the confederates burned most of the archives, so unfortunately, i don't have those to give you.

a partial answer, of course, can be divined by the construction of experimental ships like the hundley or the use of stationary torpedos. the confederates were extremely inventive at creating -- at trying to find ways of equalizing naval combat with such a powerful enemy. in the words of gideon wells, the clash of ironclads 150 years ago in hampton roads was the most remarkable naval combat of modern times perhaps of any age. the challenge of the merrimac had been met and repelled, and thus a new era was open in the history of maritime warfare. the world and naval combat have never been the same since. thank you. [ applause ] >> i'd be happy to take any questions if there are any. i believe there is a microphone set up if you wish.

no questions? hopefully, i covered everything so thoroughly, there can be no doubts in your minds. anyway, thank you very much. >> as commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the civil war continues, join us every saturday at 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. and sundays at 11:00 a.m. for programs featuring the civil war. for more information about american history tv on c-span 3, including our complete schedule go to c-span.org/history. and to keep up with us during

the week or to send us your questions and comments, follow us on twitter. we're at twitter.com/cspanhistory. ♪ ♪ listen to the mocking bird the mocking bird is singing ♪ >> the name hairian lane may be widely forgotten today but the years before the civil war she was almost as famous as her uncle, the president of the united states. because james buchanan was a bachelor, harriett served as his white house hostess. she welcomed the prince of wales. harriet who left buns in her will to erect this monument in

washington's meridian hill park. another dozen years went by until this eight-foot tall bronze likeness of buchanan was unveiled in 1930. ironically, few presidents have entered office with few presidential credentials. wall recognizes buchanan's early career in the courtroom at a temperament more suited to the bench than the political arena. diplomacy pays tribute to his service as james k. poe k. ironically, buchanan's gifts of conciliation seemed to desert him in the white house. by encouraging pro slavery forces in kansas, he inadvertently split his own party ri