two o'clock in the afternoon
Our powder was getting low . We did not spare it , we could not ; we sent shot and shell continuously against the Monitor , and she answered in kind . Monitor and Merrimac , we went now this way , now that , the Ericsson much the lighter and quickest , the Merrimac fettered by her poor old engines , and her great length , and her twenty-three feet draught . It was two o'clock in the afternoon ... . The duelists stepped from off the cloak , tried operations at a distance , hung for a moment in the wind of indecision , then put down the match from the gunners ' hands . The Monitor darted from us , her head toward the shoal water known as the Middle Ground . She reached it and rested triumphant , out of all danger from our ram , and yet where she could still protect the Minnesota ... .