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| Map of HAmpton Roads with positions of all the combatants on Mrch 8th and 9th 1862 |
Map courtesy Wikipedia
Remember USS Minnesota? Last heard from steaming west from Fortress Monroe to do battle with Virginia and hopefully save USS Cumberland's and USS Congress' bacon? Didn't quite work out that way, though.
USS Minnesota was named after the Minnesota river, not the state. (In fact, there was no State of Minnesota yet when USS Minnesota was launched) She was one of five steam screw frigates of the same class built in mid 1850s, all of which were named after rivers. The others were Roanoke, Wabash, Colorado, and Merrimack. Hmmmmm...That last one sounds kinda familiar....
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| Very accurate Model of USS Minnesota, built by Phillip LaVoie. |
PHOTO From:
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/misc/usn/minn-350-pl/pl-index.html
This meant that Minnesota was a near identical sister ship of The USS Merrimack AKA CSS Virginia. This, of course, also meantMinnesota was gunning for her old sister ship (As was USS Roanoke, Minnesota's squadron mate.). More importantly, this also meant that Minnesota drew the very same 24 feet that Merrimack had drawn and that Virginia still drew...bet ya see where this is heading don't ya?
According to official documents and action reports the crews of Minnesota, Roanoke and St Lawrence spotted Virginia and her escorts at about 12:45PM and immediately started making preparations to get under way...lighting off boilers, singling up mooring lines, readying guns, etc. Minnesota got under way between 1:10 PM and 2 PM, followed closely by Roanoke , the latter under tow as her engines were disabled. St Lawrence followed closely behind them, also under tow by USS Cambridge.
Minnesota was making her best speed when she came abreast of Sewall's Point, at the mouth of the Elizabeth River. The Confederate battery there immediately opened fire on her, putting one shell through her main mast, and Minnesota answered them with a broadside as well as her bow pivot gun. At the same time she was swinging into Hampton Roads' North Channel for the final run to Newport News Point. The tide was heading out at this point and she was apparently hugging the north edge of the channel to get out of range of the battery at Sewall's Point .The water depth at channel's edge during low tide was 18 feet or less. The inevitable happened...Minnesota shoved herself onto the bottom mud at channel's edge, hard aground, a mile and a half from Newport News Point. Her Captain knew the bottom was soft mud and tried every maritime trick to to free her...backing her off, forcing her forward over the shoal into deeper water. Rocking her (Exact same concept as freeing a stuck car...going form reverse to full ahead, to reverse). As often happens with that same stuck car, it didn't work...all he managed to do was to force her further onto the mud bank
For their efforts, they got to sit by helplessly and watch as Virginia rammed Cumberland, then attacked and burned Congress.
Meanwhile Roanoke and St Lawrence were towed past the grounded frigate. To add insult to injury, both of them also grounded, but were pulled off by their tugs. It was after 5PM by the time Roanoke and St Lawrence were floated, too late to assist either Cumberland or Congress. St Lawrence was towed back towards Fortress Monroe, Roanoke dropped anchor and sent her tugs to assist Minnesota. (NOTE: Though I saw no source stating this, it also sounds as if her engineers and engine room crew worked their buns off getting her engines back up and running as she apparently made it back to Fortress Monroe under her own power)
Having finished with Cumberland and Congress and seeing Minnesota grounded, Flag Officer Buchanan ordered Virginia to approach and engage USS Minnesota, accompanied by Jamestown and Patrick Henry. The tide was out and at it's lowest ebb preventing Virginia from getting any closer than a mile from Minnesota due to her deep draft. On the flip side, Minnesota wasn't going anywhere for awhile.
Virginia's guns opened up at their maximum range, and Minnesota also opened up on Virginia with a couple of full broadsides as well as her ten inch pivot gun.. Between the two of them they created clouds of powder smoke, lots of noise and towering water columns but little actual damage. One of Virginia's shells passed through Minnesota's bow without inflicting major damage, the few Minnesota shells that made it to Virginia bounced off like pebbles, and Minnesota's broadsides managed to push her even further up on the mud bank. Her commanding officer noted that she created a cradle for herself in the mud. She was there until she could be pulled off
Jamestown and Patrick Henry, drawing only 13 feet apiece, were able to get in closer to Minnesota and took positions off of her port bow and port stern quarter, firing on her and causing some casualties as well as inflicting more damage, but Minnesota (Which, unlike Congress, had grounded parallel to the channel), was able to bring her bow and stern pivot guns to bear. The pivot guns were big 10 inch guns fired rapidly (For that era) and accurately by their crews and they quickly drove the two gunboats off.
(A quick note about the gunboats Jamestown and Patrick Henry. While both were classified as gunboats neither were small. Both had originally been built as passenger steamers and were sister ships. They were 250 feet long with a beam of 35 feet...Only 25 and 2 feet less than Virginia respectively. Both were fast for that era and well handled by their crews. . They weren't intended to be major warships, but jacks of all trades that could defend themselves and trade blows with the enemy...tasks both excelled at during their short careers)
Virginia steamed back and forth for a bit, searching for a way to close on Minnesota as the grounded frigate fired on her with her pivot guns to little or no effect. When it became obvious that she could get no closer to Minnesota because of shoal water, she retired back to Sewall's Point at about 7PM accompanied by her two escorts. Minnesota would still be there in the morning when the tide was in...they could finish her off then. By sheer luck Minnesota had, technically at least, fought Monitor and her escorts to a draw. She had done so, at any rate, until the tide flooded again the next morning. If she was still on this mud bank when Virginia steamed back out during flood tide...well Cumberland’s masts and Congress' smoldering remains were mute testimony to what would happen to her.
The tide turned and started coming back in at about 10PM. Minnesota's crew, along with a couple of tugs, took advantage of the flood tide and worked tirelessly through the night to float her off of the mud bank but for all intents and purposes she was part of the bottom...in fact had the bottom been rocky rather than soft sand and mud, Minnesota would have probably ripped her own bottom out. Between four and six feet of her hull was embedded in the mud, locking her in place with a vice grip. Captain Van Brunt finally gave up around 4AM. He had some back-up now anyway. About 2AM a strange looking craft slipped in along side of her and dropped anchor. Kinda looked like a Cheese Box on a Raft. USS Monitor had arrived.
**************************NOTES, LINKS, AND STUFF**********************
Warning...Rob's thinking and conjecturing again! Did the Confederate Navy have a a bit of early warning that USS Monitor had arrived? I guess it depends on whose action report you believe.
There are a couple of sources that report that Confederate gunners and even the crew of the Virginia spotted Monitor coming alongside Minnesota. If you believe Captain Van Brunt's action report, they couldn't have seen her because the Confederate gunners reported seeing Monitor's distinctive shape silhouetted by the burning USS Congress. The problem was, Congress magazines exploded just after midnight, and according to Van Brunt's action report, Monitor didn't arrive at Minnesota until about 2AM.
She had been burning for close to 10 hours when her magazines finally cooked off so there couldn’t have been but so much solid structure left before the explosion, which would have likely taken down what was left , finishing the job of taking Congress all the way to the waterline. The only large more or less intact mass would have been below the surface, flooded and not burning.
BUT! The Monitor's executive officer reported in his action report that Monitor arrived at the grounded USS Minnesota at about 11:30PM. If that was indeed the case, Congress still had about a half hour to burn brightly before she exploded. If this was the case, someone may have indeed seen her slipping across Hampton Roads, silhouetted by the flaring bright orange slash that Congress was throwing across the water.
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Hampton Roads Channel had been dredged to a maximum of about 30 feet by the Civil War...25 feet was about the deepest draft you were going to find back then. The problem was, the maximum depth was only found at mid channel, and shoaling both mid channel and at the edges of the channel was a very common occurrence (Hence Minnesota running aground just inside the channel.
Today the channel's dredged to a minimum of 50 feet pretty much edge to edge, but shoaling can still be a problem. For example, the 18th April 2011 the MV Petalon a 750 foot collier displacing nearly 100,000 tons and drawing 47 feet ran aground mid channel on the outbound side when she should have had at least 3 feet of water beneath her keel. The culprit? Minor shoaling in an area about half again the size of a football field . Quick work by the Army Corp of Engineers and The Coast Guard freed the big Collier within five hours and had the channel dredged to a shade more than 50 feet in the affected area within forty eight.
The problem is nowhere near as prevalent as it was 150 years ago...but it still happens on the rare occasion. The big difference is, of course, now the only hazard they face is loss of revenue to both the port and the shipping company while the ship 's delayed and the channel's blocked.
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USS Roanoke was towed into battle due to her engines being out of service. As she was also one of Merrimack's sister ships I can't help but wonder if engine problems were common to that class of ship and type of engine. If this is true it would just be another case of 'The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same'. There have been numerous case over the decades of problems common to every vehicle in a series...think of all the recalls you've heard about. Designed in problems are not a new phenomenon.
LINKS:
This link will probably show up on every article about The Battle Of Hampton Roads.
Click on any link in the menu to the left on the home page and you'll get tons of info about all facets of the battle.
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The above link's a treasure trove. Click on it to find the official action reports of every major participant in The Battle of Hampton Roads over both days of the battle.
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