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(Hampton Roads)

Hampton Roads

March 8-9, 1862
Also known as: Monitor vs. Virginia (Merrimack), Battle of the Ironclads
Hampton Roads, VA
Campaign: Peninsula Campaign

Lt. John Worden, USN
Capt. Franklin Buchanan and Lt. Catesby ap R. Jones, CSN

4 US warships, including USS Monitor engaged the CSS Virginia.

The US lost about 400, the Confederates 24.

On March 8, 1862, from her berth at Norfolk, the Confederate ironclad Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads where she sank the USS Cumberland and ran the USS Congress aground.  Her appearance was a tactical surprise: there had been plenty of rumors that something was happening to the old USS Merrimac, but over time the rumors became too common and were ignored.  After her initial victory Virginia returned to Norfolk to reload ammunition and rest; the next day she would return and destroy any more US ships foolish enough to test her.  But overnight, in one of the luckiest strokes of timing in the war (lucky for the Union) the ironclad Monitor arrived to do battle.  Her task was unglamorous in that it was negative: she only needed to stop the Virginia.  Destruction or damage was incidental, and Monitor�s first task was to keep herself afloat and dangerous.  Virginia tried to knock Monitor out, but overnight, having expected to fight more wooden ships, had loaded mainly shells rather than shot.  (Monitor�s armor wasn�t necessarily thick enough to protect her against penetrating shot, and plenty of ironclads were sunk during the war.) 

The first ironclad duel in history was a draw.  Monitor took considerable damage, sufficient that she pulled into water shallower than Virginia could enter, but Virginia had also taken too much damage (including a wound to Buchanan that put Jones in command) and she retired.  She would never fight again; the Confederacy had strained its industrial base to build an ironclad and didn�t have the resources to continue building the various ships scattered around her perimeter and quickly repair Virginia.  By the time she was patched, Union troops were at the gates of Norfolk.  Virginia wasn�t adequately seaworthy to go up the Chesapeake, let alone the high seas, and she drew too much water to go up the James.  She had to be destroyed.

Page 14

(Hampton Roads)