July 1861

Beginning in July 1861 Confederate naval authorities worked diligently to retrofit the captured Federal ship Merrimack as an ironclad, an experimental and revolutionary design at the time. On February 17, 1862 the work was complete, and the new vessel was christened the CSS Virginia.

On March 8 the Virginia steamed out to engage the Federal ships blockading the port at Hampton Roads, Virginia. It was an epic mismatch. As federal cannonballs bounced harmlessly off the Virginia’s armor, she first rammed and sank the USS Cumberland. With the Cumberland dispatched, the Virginia then turned on the USS Congress, battering her with shells until she caught fire and surrendered. The Virginia then turned on the USS Minnesota, which ran aground while trying to escape. Fortunately for the Minnesota, night fell before the Virginia could reach her. Unable to fight in the dark, the Virginia returned to port and prepared to come out the next day and finish off the Federals. It had been the worst naval defeat in U.S. history and would remain so until Pearl Harbor.

Word of what had happened sent Washington into a panic. Secretary of War Staunton urged the cabinet to begin to prepare to evacuate the capital, fearing the Virginia would steam up the coast shelling cities from Washington to New York and sweeping the Federal navy off the sea.

The next morning the Virginia steamed back out into Hampton Roads, intending to mop up any Federal resistance. But as the day began to brighten the Virginia’s crew noticed that their way was being blocked by a strange little ship they hadn’t seen before. That very night, the USS Monitor had arrived.

When Federal authorities became aware that the Confederates were building an ironclad, they hastily began trying to build one of their own. Designed by John Erickson, the Monitor was the product of that rush effort. With a rotating gun turret set upon a flat low platform, the Confederates who first spotted her said she looked like “a cheese floating on a raft.” On that morning in 1862, the survival of the U.S. navy at Hampton Roads depended on that cheese-on-a-raft.

The Virginia and the Monitor slugged it out all day, as the Monitor shielded the wooden Federal ships. Neither ship was able to do much damage to the other, but with the Monitor blocking her way the Virginia could not reach the other Federal blockaders. The battle was a draw, but in this case a draw was a win for the Federals. The blockade remained intact.

Two months later the Confederates evacuated Norfolk, forcing the Virginia to be scuttled. Her crew set her afire and when the fire reached the magazine the Virginia exploded and sank. The Monitor didn’t survive the year either. On December 31, 1862, she sank off Cape Hatteras while attempting to join the naval flotilla at Beaufort, North Carolina.

On March 9, 1862, one hundred sixty-one years ago today, the USS Monitor battled the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, earning her the title “the little ship that saved the nation.”