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The Battle Between the Monitor and the Virginia, a summary by Joseph Umberto The battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia is one of the most famous naval battles of all time and certainly the most famous that ever took place in Virginia! Below is one of several articles that will be forthcoming on the Battle of Hampton Roads. The USS Merrimack was a 275-foot sail and screw frigate built at the Boston Navy Yard, launched on 15 June 1855; she was commissioned less than a year later on 20 February 1856. The Merrimack made an initial deployment to the Caribbean, her shakedown continued in Western European waters. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean her top speed was 12 knots. She made port calls in England, France, and Portugal, before returning to America in early 1857. The Merrimack then steamed her way around South America’s Cape Horn in late 1857 to take her position as flagship of the Pacific Squadron. She saw service in Central and South American waters before returning to the US in 1859, where she saw additional service. The Merrimack was subsequently decommissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard on 16 February 1860. The USS Merrimack, which will become the CSS Virginia The Merrimack remained in Norfolk, and was there when the state of Virginia seceded from the Union on 17 April 1861. Federal forces sank the Merrimack on 20 April as they withdrew from the Norfolk Navy Yard in an effort to make her unusable to the southern cause. When the Confederate States Navy arrived at Norfolk Navy Yard they found the Merrimack burned to the waterline and sunk, but the ship’s lower hull and machinery were intact, engineers salvaged the ship and converted her to an armored casemate ironclad. Ironclad warships were a new concept in warship design that both the Union and Confederate Navy were interested in. A casemate ironclad is an iron-armored gunboat that consisted of a low cut hull with little freeboard. Compared to the traditional ironclads it does not have its cannons in a rotating armored gun deck, but in a sloped-casemate structure that is constructed on the main deck where the guns are housed. The guns are fired from fixed gun ports housed in the casemate. The Confederate State Navy would adopt a variance of this design. The USS Merrimack, which will become the CSS Virginia The Confederate States Navy had their work cut out, through the remainder of 1861 and into the early months of the New Year, the Merrimack was raised, dry-docked, and converted into a casemate ironclad ram. This new warship type had promise in overcoming the Union’s great superiority in conventional wooden warships. The CSS Virginia was commissioned in February 1862. She had four-inch thick armor and was equipped with ten guns, a seven-inch pivot mounted rifle at the bow and at the stern and a broadside battery of two six-inch rifles and six nine-inch smoothbores. Affixed to her bow was an iron ram, allowing herself to be employed as a most deadly weapon against Union ships participating in the blockade of Southern ports. The design of the Virginia was dictated by available technology and materials and not necessarily in confidence of the possibilities of this type of warship. Regardless, within a month’s time of her commission, naval warfare would be changed forever. Hampton Roads was the scene of an epic naval battle on 9 March 1862. This was the first battle between two ironclad ships; it is perhaps the most significant naval battle of the entire Civil War. The Battle of Hampton Roads unfolded on 8 March when the Virginia set sail for Hampton Roads. The Patrick Henry, Jamestown, Teaser, Raleigh, and Beaufort accompanied the Virginia to take on the Union blockade. The blockade strategy had been a success for the Union. The Confederacy had a difficult time engaging in overseas trade or re-supply of its forces through its ports due to this stranglehold. The first ship that was encountered was the USS Cumberland. The Cumberland was sunk after being rammed by the Virginia. When sinking the Cumberland the iron ram broke off from the Virginia’s bow. Seeing what happened to Cumberland, the captain of the USS Congress ordered his ship grounded in shallow water. The Congress and Virginia traded fire for about an hour, after which the badly-damaged Congress surrendered. A Union battery on the north shore opened fire on Virginia while the surviing crewmen of the Congress were being ferried off the ship. In retaliation, the captain of Virginia ordered Congress fired upon with red-hot shot that set her ablaze. The Virginia did not emerge from the battle unscathed. Shot from Cumberland, Congress, and Union troops on shore had riddled her smokestack, reducing her already low speed. The Virginia's best speed was about 9 knots. The weight of the iron and poor steam engine performance was a known problem. Now two of her guns were out of order, and a number of armor plates had been loosened. Regardless of the damage report, her captain attacked the USS Minnesota, which had run aground on a sandbank trying to escape the Virginia . Virginia was unable to do significant damage because of her deep draft. Her draft prevented her from closing and engaging the Minnesota. It being late in the day, Virginia broke off the engagement with the expectation of returning the next day and completing the destruction of a Union fleet now in havoc. Later that night, the USS Monitor arrived at Union-held Fort Monroe. Upon learning that the Confederates were building an ironclad, the Union rushed one of their own into production -- the Monitor. It was built in less than 100 days at Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. The Monitor arrived after a grueling trip down the coast in open ocean -a situation it was not designed for. Its purpose was to prevent the Virginia from threatening Union cities along the Atlantic coast, but little did its captain and crew know that they would go into battle the very day after their arrival. The USS Monitor, savior of the Union fleet in Hampton Roads The Union had hoped that the Monitor would catch the Virginia while still in dry-dock, but this opportunity was missed by a day. The next day, on 9 March 1862, the world's first battle between ironclad warships took place, thus making all wooden ships in the Navies of the world obsolete. The smaller and nimbler Monitor was able to out-maneuver the Virginia , but neither ship proved able to do significant damage to the other although both were damaged. The Monitor was much closer to the water, so apart from the reinforced turret it was difficult for Virginia's guns to hit her, but the Monitor was vulnerable to ramming and boarding. Finally, with her captain injured the Monitor retreated and the CSS Virginia claimed the day. Controversy over who actually won the battle continues to this day, however. The USS Monitor versus the CSS Virginia The Virginia retreated to her dock and repairs were made. The Union fleet did remain, but kept out of the reach of the Confederate ironclad. During the next two months, Virginia made numerous sorties to Hampton Roads that were meant to draw Monitor into battle. The Monitor, however, was under orders not to engage Virginia unless it made an attack on a ship. Circumstances of war soon ensured that neither ironclad was ever to fight again. Advancing Union troops occupied Norfolk on 10 May 1862. Virginia was unable to retreat further up the James River due to her deep draft, nor was she seaworthy enough to enter the ocean. Without a home port, Virginia was ordered to scuttle. All of her guns were safely removed and carried to Drewy's Bluff to fight again. Early on the morning of 11 May 1862, off Craney Island, with her crew safely off the ship, a fire was lit. When the flames reached her magazine their was a great explosion and the ship was destroyed. Several parts of the Virginia survive in museums, including dented armor and the ship's wheel at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, and an anchor and part of a propeller shaft at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has called for a follow-up investigation to decide if the wreck spotted in a 2003 survey near Craney Island is the Virginia. If it is, federal and state laws require that the ship's remains be removed before any dredging can take place. The Monitor, not suitable for ocean travel either, was being towed down the coast in late 1862 and sank in heavy seas; she landed upside down in 240 feet of water, 16 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. 16 members of her crew were lost, the rest made it to safety in the tug boat. A joint US Navy and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration team has raised the Monitor's turret and other parts. The Mariners' Museum in Newport News has custody of Monitor artifacts. The USS Monitor Center at the Mariners’ Museum is on schedule to open 9 March 2007. The greatest lesson learned from this battle was the importance of technology to warfare. The Virginia's sinking of two wooden vessels on 8 March and the technological superiority of the Monitor's iron revolving turret in effect sank all of the world's wooden navies. Iron now ruled supreme across the seven seas. The Webography http://history.navy.mil/photos/sh-us-cs/csa-sh/csash-sz/virginia.htm http://history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/merimak2.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Virginia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads http://www.monitorcenter.org/ http://cssvirginia.org/ http://www.nnsy1.navy.mil/History/VIRGINIB.HTM http://www.rpi.edu/~fiscap/history_files/monitor.htm All photos are from the copyright-free archives of the US government.

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