Hampton Roads Naval Museum

23. Duel of the Ironclads

Norfolk, VA

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The occupation of Gosport Navy Yard in April 1861 provided the Confederate Navy with the nation's finest shipbuilding facility. The enormous stock of critically-needed ordnance, gunpowder, and ship fittings were used to arm defensive batteries and naval vessels throughout the Confederacy. The USS Merrimack was reconstructed as an ironclad ram, named CSS Virginia, and new construction was underway on a second large ram and several gunboats during the Confederate occupation. CSS Virginia was a powerful ship which mounted six 9-inch Dahlgren guns, two 6.4-inch and two 7-inch Brooke rifles. A 1500-pound cast ram was added to the bow. Alarmed by intelligence of Confederate ironclad construction, the Federal government announced a competition for construction of armored warships to counter the threat. Of the three designs accepted, the most radical was the low freeboard, turreted model submitted by John Ericsson. USS Monitor mounted two 11" Dahlgren smoothbores in its revolving turret. The Monitor revolutionized naval warfare. Hastily constructed in New York, this ship arrived in Hampton Roads the night of March 8, 1862. That same day, CSS Virginia steamed across Hampton Roads to attack USS Cumberland and Congress at the blockading station off Newport News Point. Invulnerable to Union guns, the ironclad scored repeated shell hits while closing on Cumberland. Unable to maneuver under sail, Cumberland was violently rammed at the waterline by Virginia. Tearing off her iron prow, Virginia backed free of the doomed Cumberland and turned downstream to attack Congress. USS Minnesota, rushing to join the action, ran helplessly aground in Hampton Roads. Joined by Confederate gunboats, CSS Virginia raked the grounded USS Congress with a devastating cannonade, compelling the frigate to haul down her colors. While receiving the surrender, the Confederate squadron was fired on by Union shore batteries. With darkness coming on and in need of minor repairs, the ironclad anchored off Sewell's Point anticipating the destruction of USS Minnesota at dawn. As USS Congress burned through the night, the frantic efforts of Union tugs to refloat the USS Minnesota were unsuccessful. In the first hours of March 9, 1862, as Congress exploded, USS Monitor came to the side of the grounded flagship. The following morning, as CSS Virginia closed on Minnesota, Capt. John L. Worden placed Monitor in the path of the Confederate ram. A fierce battle ensued in which the ships, exchanging volleys at close range, struck each other over twenty times. After two hours of indecisive combat and with Worden temporarily blinded, the Union ironclad withdrew to shallow water. Virginia, unable to ram Monitor because of her deep shaft, then retired to Gosport, initiating a month-long stalemate in Hampton Roads. The ironclad ships USS Monitor and CSS Virginia dramatically ended the era of the wooden warship.