Naval Warfare Was Changed Forever on the James River



Currier & Ives’ 1862 lithograph  of the
 combat between the “Monitor” and the “Merrimac”



by Judith Warrington

In early March 1862, Union naval forces controlled the lower Chesapeake Bay supplying their land troops and making trade and transport difficult for the Confederacy. On March 8, five of the Union’s most powerful men o’ war lay at anchor in Hampton Roads, when across the river came the CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack. Unlike the conventional wooden warships at anchor, the Virginia had been converted into a maneuverable, steam-powered ironclad.

Upon first sighting of the ironclad vessel, the Union ships called all crews to quarters and began firing steadily, hitting the Virginia many times, but never slowing its progress. An eyewitness described the approaching ironclad as looking “like the roof of a very big barn belching forth smoke as from a chimney on fire.” Returning fire from her cannons, the Virginia rammed the wooden-hulled sloop, USS Cumberland. Even as she went down, the Cumberland’s crew continued firing its guns in order to prevent the ironclad from destroying any other ships. A gallant action, but it was all in vain.

The frigate USS Congress was next in the Virginia’s sights. It floundered helplessly, having run aground in a failed attempt to escape. After an hour of exchanging fire, the Congress surrendered, its crew abandoned ship and then set it afire. Likewise, the steam-propelled USS Minnesota had gone aground. Only the fading daylight spared it until the next day when the Virginia would return.

As March 9 dawned, the Virginia returned to finish off the Minnesota and the remaining Union ships. But along side the frigate was the Union’s own ironclad, the USS Monitor, which had arrived from New York not long after the Virginia’s departure the previous evening. So began what many historians consider to be the first modern naval battle as the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (or as many people refer to it in this battle, the Merrimack) blasted away at each other off Sewell’s Point. Both ironclads suffered severe damage. At midday, the Monitor’s commanding officer was blinded by shrapnel, forcing the ship to temporarily withdraw. This gave the Virginia an opportunity to return to Norfolk. The engagement was essentially a stalemate, but it changed the history of naval warfare forever.

The Virginia survived another two months, only to be scuttled when Norfolk fell to Union forces in May 1862. Although the Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras on New Year’s Eve of the same year, that’s not the end of its story. To learn more about the fate of the USS Monitor, visit http://www.marinersmuseum.org/uss-monitor-center/uss-monitor-center