Detail from Library of Congress
photo: LC-DIG-cwpb-01513
The Gap
When the
Scorpion drew near the obstructions, U.S.
soldiers could see her and fired away. Her pilot pronounced the gap
impassable, refused to measure the water's depth, and demanded to
return to the ironclad
Virginia II. Lt. C.W. Read,
commanding the Confederate torpedo boats, took the
Scorpion to the
front ironclad, the
Fredericksburg, got a second pilot, and returned
to the barricade. Ordering both pilots into a skiff, Read went in
close. He found the gap blocked by a single wooden spar
—hung
in chains and floating in 18 feet of water. Even at low tide, the
Confederate ironclads could pass.
The winter floods created the gap by shifting the sunken hulks, including the
second one from the shore in this image, which surging waters
repositioned enough to
leave an opening in the channel.