For God, Family and Republic

One hundred and forty-four years ago, the Battle of Hampton Roads, sometimes called "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack" transpired. It was a naval battle of the War Between the States, and it occurred from March 8–9, 1862 off Sewell's Point, a narrow place near the mouth of Hampton Roads, Virginia.

On March 9, 1862, a watershed moment in naval military history took place when the ironclad ship U.S.S. Monitor clashed with the Confederate ironclad ship, the C.S.S. Virginia.

However, the day before this great engagement, on March 8 the Virginia had performed a feat no less impressive. Departing from Norfolk, the Virginia set sail for the blockade of Union ships that were trying to strangle the Confederacy by blockade. No less than fiften minutes from the first shot, the Virginia rammed and sank the 24-gun Cumberland, and thereafter immediately attacked the 50-gun frigate, Congress. A half-hour later, the Congress was pummeled, and as she surrendered, the Confederate forces set fire to her. Union shore batteries, however, began to launch fire on the Virginia and she returned to Norfolk for repairs. The next morning, on March 9, 1862, after undergoing repairs at port, the C.S.S. Virginia returned to finish off the grounded U.S.S. Minnesota. The way was blocked by the newly arrived U.S.S. Monitor. The Confederate commander later described the Monitor as "little more than a cheesebox on a raft". The battle was inconclusive and resulted in a draw, but its historical significance is great because it was the first battle between two ironclads, the C.S.S. Virginia and the U.S.S. Monitor.

The Union Navy burned the U.S.S. Merrimack during the evacuation of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia in 1861. However, she was rebuilt at the Gosport Shipyard at Portsmouth by the Confederates, in the first dry dock in America, complete with ironclad plating and a reduced superstructure from her old burned out hull. Thereafter, she was commissioned as the The C.S.S. Virginia on February 17, 1862. Historian Allan Nevins describes the formidable ship (formerly the Merrimac,) as it was refitted and sent out to sea:

The Merrimac, a 40-gun frigate of 3,200 tons, left a ruined hulk at Norfolk, was now a formidable monument to Confederate industry and ingenuity. Her scuttled hull had been cut down almost to the water line, pumped clean, floated, and repaired. Lieutenant John M. Brooke and J.L. Porter had shieled the top and sides with heavy timbers, plated with railroad iron; had installed guns, 4 of them rifled and 6 of them 9-inch smooth-bores; and had fixed a powerful iron beak to the prow. The cost was trifling, the result astonishing. When the ship suddenly lumbered out of Norfolk into Hampton Roads to meet the Union frigates, it looked like a huge floating fort, its black iron sides sloping up from the water, its guns protruding from the small square portholes, its flat deck toppled by a flagstaff and one great funnel spouting smoke and cinders. With a length of 262 feet 9 inches, and a breadth of just over 51 feet, the Merrimac (which the Confederates called the Virginia) bore a complete cuirass of three inches of armor.
War for the Union 1862-1863. (New York, NY: Konecky & Konecky, 1960, p.50)

Later in April 1862 the Virginia, under Capt. Josiah Tattnall, again challenged the Monitor, but the Union ship declined combat and disengaged by fleeing to sea. After the Union troops captured and occupied Norfolk, the Virginia fled in May 1862, and unable to sufficiently lighten the Virginia for an escape up the James River, Captain Tattnall opted to destroy the ship with es so it could not be salvaged and the crew her abandoned her. Later that year in December 1862, the Monitor foundered and sank in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras.

Related Articles of Interest
Civil War Center - The Battle of Hampton Roads
National Geographic - The Battle of Hampton Roads

Answers.com - C.S.S. Virginia
C.S.S. Virginia Home Page
The Story Of The Confederate States Ship Virginia

Answers.com - U.S.S. Monitor
The U.S.S. Monitor