during the battle i would continually ask the captain how does the merrimac bear? and on the star board beam he could say or on the port quarter as the case may be. then the difficult would be to determine the direction of the star board beam or the port bear organize any other bearing. he had no idea which direction he was pointing during the battle. now this comment by greene is often taken as a sort of aauthoritative account. in this article in the turret. we want to think than article in historical context as well. it was written for century magazine, which assembled a whole series of personal accounts that was later published in a series of volumes. they're very popular still called battles of the civil war. it was republished in 1956 in anticipation of the centennial. greene wrote this account. it was the first time he wrote his account of what happened during the battle of hampton roads. he described the confusion on board the ship. described the reasons that he broke off the battle when warden was wounded, went out to his mailbox, put it in the mail, went b