What Happened to 'Em? Virginia and Monitor

What Happened to 'Em After The Battle, Part I

Virginia and Monitor

So, after The Battle of Hampton Roads, The Virginia And the Monitor faded into history, never to be seen or heard from again...oh no, wait. Actually that's not what happened. Neither ship had a long career after the battle, and both died spectacularly...but in two entirely different ways.

Bein' a good Ol' Southern Boy, I'll kick this portion off with the fate of CSS Virginia...

 The U.S. Navy bolstered the blockading fleet with several new arrivals after the battle. One was USS Galena (One of the original Union ironclad design considerations, she was a conventional broadside warship that had armor added to her. From all accounts this addition wasn't a huge success. And yep, I'm going to take a closer look at her, too.). Another new addition was U.S.R.C E.A.Stevens, an experimental two screw ironclad owned by the US Revenue Cutter Service, and loaned to the Navy. USS Minnesota had been repaired and had rejoined the blockade fleet.

After her little dust-up with Monitor, Virginia steamed back to Gosport where she was immediately dry-docked for repairs. A new wrought iron and steel ram was fitted to her bow, her armor was repaired, new gun port shutters were fitted, and she was generally overhauled and reconditioned. Her crew was still determined to break the Union blockade as well as spoiling for another fight with the Monitor. They'd be unsuccessful in both endeavors

At about the same time Commodore Josiah Tatnall took over command of the Confederate Naval Forces in Hampton Roads from Admiral Buchanon.  He was to be frustrated in every turn during his short tenure. Not only did Monitor ignore his attempts to draw her into battle, Virginia stayed in dry dock for all but thirteen of the forty-five days that he was in command. He did note, in reference to Virginia's tendency to stay in drydock, that the Union forces were apparently overly impressed with Virginia's power and efficiency (And if truth be known, the South was equally over-impressed with her.)

Virginia's crew spent a good bit of the thirteen days they were afloat and not drydocked trying to goad Monitor's crew into a rematch. Wasn't gonna happen...Virginia's crew may have been spoiling for another fight, but Monitor, wouldn't come out to play. This had nothing to do with the collective attitudes of Monitor's crew, and most certainly had nothing to do with their courage. If anything, they were probably beyond frustrated and more than a little pissed off at the U.S.Navy brass, because they had actually been forbidden to engage Virginia.

 Virginia's crew didn't know this, of course. They made several sorties out into Hampton Roads trying to draw Monitor into another battle, but the two ironclads never engaged each other in battle again, much as Virginia's crew tried...and believe me, they definitely tried. In the process of trying to get Monitor to fight and likely pushing her crew to record-busting levels of frustration, Virginia's crew still scored a minor victory or two. On April 11^th, the powers that be in the Confederate Navy decided that if the Monitor wouldn't come out and fight on her own, they'd make her come out . So, Virginia, accompanied by Jamestown and five other vessels sailed across Hampton Roads in full view of the Union squadron, figuring they'd come out and engage them...I mean the Confederate ships crews were all but thumbing their noses at the Union crews at close range. No freaking WAY they’d put up with that. Right??? Well...wrong. The crews of the Union vessels, under strict orders not to engage, simply watched and very likely fumed silently.

When the Confederate crews realized that the crews of the Union ships weren't going to so much as shoot a spitball at them they took it up another notch. They quickly moved in and captured a trio of merchant vessels, namely the brigs Marcus and Sabout and the schooner Catherine T. Dix. They did this, again, right under the noses of the watching Union fleet. To rub salt into their wounds, the Confederate prize crews flipped the captured vessels' flags upside down, then towed them back across The Roads, in full view of the Union crews fifteen hundred or so yards away. This was probably one of the strangest 'battles; of the entire war, and I would have truly loved to have been a fly on the wall...er, bulkhead...on any of the vessels involved, be they U.S.Navy, Confederate Navy or captured merchant vessels. I have a feeling that the conversations would have been priceless.

This wasn't Virginia's last attempt to engage Monitor by any means. On May 8^{th, ,} a day shy of The Battle of The Ironclads two month anniversary, Monitor and the rest of the Union squadron ventured out and started shelling the Confederate shore fortifications near Norfolk. Virginia's crew (Likely thinking something along the lines of 'We actually do something when our people are attacked) steamed out and headed for the attacking squadron, crew at battle stations, guns loaded and ready, and...and...

The Union squadron spotted Virginia boiling across Hampton Roads with a bone in her teeth, turned tail, and ran beneath the guns of their own shore batteries on the North side of the James River and on Rip-Raps Island. These batteries then started firing on Virginia as she advanced on the Union squadron...at one point shells from the shore batteries were falling a half mile or so beyond her (And the gunners must have been pretty lousy shots as not a single round is reported to have hit Virginia). At this point, Commodore Tatnall decided that he's accomplished his goal...they had put a stop to the bombardment. Virginia returned to her anchorage. She had two days to live.

Two days later, on the tenth of May, Federal forces took Norfolk. Their arrival had been anticipated for a while actually, and all of Virginia's tenders took part in removing Confederate property, and taking it up the James...we'll get into their fates in a bit. Virginia's crew had a problem though. She was actually a steam powered self propelled battery, and had no sea keeping ability what so ever. Anything rougher than near mill-pond conditions would sink her in a heart-beat. So escaping into the Atlantic was out of the question, even if she could have made it past the beefed up blockade fleet.

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Heading up the James, towards Richmond would have been her best option, but they had another problem. Remember her deep draft...guess what. The repairs and modifications made after the battle made her heavier, increasing her draft by about a foot. Back then there was a sand bar at the mouth of the James.(Still is, in fact, but the channel through it is kept nice and deep and wide these days). The depth at the sand bar back then was somewhere between 18 and twenty feet. Virginia drew between 23 and 24 feet.

There was absolutely no way they'd make it over that bar, not without being lightened considerably. They threw coal and supplies overboard, lightening her until she barely had enough coal aboard to make it to Drewry's Bluff, (Just south of Richmond), and until a couple of feet of her unarmored wooden hull was exposed. Even after all of this her draft was still too deep to make it over the bar.

Tatnall decided that there was only one other alternative left. Norfolk was in Union hands, and the Navy Yard would soon follow....she no longer had a home port. She also had no way to escape Hampton Roads. And she absolutely couldn't be allowed to fall into Union hands.

Her guns were unloaded and placed aboard another vessel to be transported to the Confederate base at Drewry's Bluff, then she was taken up the Elizabeth River and run aground just off of Craney Island. Her battle ensign was lowered and removed. Her decks were swabbed sown with fat, tallow, lamp oil, and anything else that would burn, and powder trails were lain throughout her hull and gun deck. Lt Jones was the last man off of her, and he dropped a match onto one of the powder trails before quickly boarding a small boat with the remainder of the crew. They pulled hard for shore, watching as flames quickly took hold of Virginia, rolling from the gun ports as heavy smoke pushed from vents and seams.

Artist's impression of Virginia burning off of Craney Island

Artists impression of Virginia exploding off of Craney island. This isn't entirely accurate as it was well after midnight when she blew up...it would have been dark rather than daylight.

 Early on the morning of May 11^th, fire finally reached her magazines and she exploded spectacularly, scattering pieces of her casemate for a hundred or so yards in all directions. her remains going to the bottom in less than a minute.

In 1865 the schooner Priscilla tore her hull open on the wreck and sank next to Virginia's remains, resulting, belatedly, in the wreck being declared a Hazard to Navigation. More explosive charges were used to flatten the wreck.

 Because she was on the bottom within all but wading distance of Craney Island it stands to reason that she was heavily salvaged. In 1874 B.J.Baker and Company salvaged a good bit of her, then the most extensive salvage was accomplished by Captain William West in 1875-76. In 1875, one of his lighters, loaded down with old iron and a couple of cannon (Apparently all of her guns weren't removed) sank at the Portsmouth ferry landing. In 1876, A good portion of her hull was raised, pumped out and towed to Gosport, then dry docked in Dry Dock#1...the very graving dock where she was built. Her machinery was removed, and she was broken up for scrap and souvenirs. Some of her woodwork was used to make canes. Unfortunately, no pictures of her wreck in the graving dock are known to exist.

Though this map's from 1812, this gives you a pretty good idea of what Craney Island looked like in 1862. I also added an approximation of the present day Reclamation Area, and the wreck site.

 Thing is, there has always been a good bit of controversy concerning just how much of her was actually salvaged. It was reported that her bottom timbers...most of what remained of her hull...broke in two when they raised her, part of it settling back to the bottom.

Craney Island, of course, still exists, though not in the form and shape it had in 1862. A large area that didn't exist in 1862 was formed from reclaimed dredged material, and has been made into a wildlife refuge. The actual Island itself (Now a peninsula) was made into a fuel farm and ship refueling station in the early portion of World War II. ***Note...the U.S.Navy site about the fuel depot notes that it's been a fuel depot since 1918.*** During the process of building the site, the Elizabeth River was dredged to 42 feet from it's original 18 foot depth, potentially, and very likely dredging any remains of Virginia out of existence. End of story, right? Ahhhhhhh...wrong!

C S S Virginia's wreck site, denoted by the red oblong just to the east of the Craney Island Reclamation Area. That area, BTW, is entirely man made. The actual island, now a peninsula, is just to the south of the wreck site, and is now a U S Navy Fuel Depot (Their largest, in fact). The channel to this fuel depot was dredged to 42 feet in W W II, likely obliterating any remains of Virginia.  To orient you, the wreck site's at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, and Norfolk International Terminal is immediately to the east. The bridge on the extreme left of the pic is the south end of the Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel.

NUMA...Clive Cussler's outfit...searched for her in the late 90s, and found nothing. But the story doesn't end quite yet. In 2003, while surveying for a possible eastward expansion of Craney island, two wrecks, right next to each other were found, and speculation is that this could be the wrecks of both Virginia, and of the schooner Priscilla. A boiler was actually raised...but it can't be one of Virginia's boilers because both were raised during the initial salvage operations. So far, there has been no determination made as to just what these wrecks may actually be. SO we may never know. And if it is Virginia, it's likely that not much of her's left. But it'd be nice to think some parts of her are still on the bottom of the Elizabeth River, within sight of the waters where she made history.

While Monitor got most of the modern era glory, some artifacts from Virginia remain. This is one of the cannon that was damaged during her battle with Cumberland and Congress

 

USS Monitor.

After The Battle, Monitor was tasked with defending the blockade fleets wooden warships...exactly what she'd been sent to do in the first place. And as noted above, she was absolutelony forbidden to engage Virginia again unless she was attacked, and by 'Attacked' they apparently meant 'Broadsides At Point Blank Range, which wasn't going to happen. Her commander had basically been told 'If Virginia even looks like she's going to try to engage, you are to retreat'. Bet Monitor's crew just loved those orders.

But being good officers and sailors, they followed those orders to a 'T' and there was never a 'Battle Of The Ironclads II...The Rematch', much as both crews would have loved it. This doesn't mean she didn't see any more action of course. She shelled fortifications in Hampton Roads, as noted above. Then, on May 15^th, 1862 she steamed up the James River along with four other gunboats to engage and hopefully neutralize the batteries at Drewry's Bluff (Just south of Richmond and about a mile or so from where I'm writing this.).

Painting of The Battle of Drewry's Bluff. Monitor is visible near the far bank of the River at he beginning of the bend to the left, broadside to the gun emplacement. Her guns could not elevate high enough to engage the guns of the fort effectively. Note the obstacles just below the gun emplacement...several ships were sunk mid-river to keep Union naval forces from reaching and shelling Richmond. While most of the obstacles were removed after the war, there are still some remains of these obstacles buried beneath the mud on the river bottom. Dredging has done a pretty good job of breaking any remains up.

Same view today. The gun emplacement shown in the painting has been recreated at the site, and I was actually standing just to the right and ahead of the cannon when I took this shot.  The bend in the river hasn't changed much at all in 150 years, though the area is far more wooded than it was then. Don't let the woods fool you...this is just off of Jeff Davis Highway, near Richmond, and heavily developed...note the modern industry just up-river. There's also a fuel tank farm just north of the site.

Unfortunately her design got in the way of her mission...Drewry's Bluff was and still is just that, a bluff, and gun emplacements were a good fifty feet or a bit more above the James River. Monitor's guns wouldn't elevate enough the engage the battery effectively. Fort Darling's (The actual name of the fort at Drewry's Bluff) guns, however, could rain shot and shell down on them with near impunity. The other four gunboats found this out all too well when they were turned back by the fort's guns after a battle which lasted about four hours. One little note here...one of the Union ships that participated in the battle...and actually gave the Confederate gun crews something to think about...Was USS Galena...one of the original ironclad concepts looked at by the Ironclad board. She'll be examined iun more detail ay some point.

 After being turned back at Drewry's Bluff, Monitor returned to Hampton Roads and remained at anchor for the rest of the summer, backing up the blockade fleet. Then in September she went to Washington Navy Yard for an overhaul and refit (Again, the weather must have been pretty calm for both legs of this trip as she had to go up the Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac River. Trust me, the bay can get pretty rough when it wants to).

She'd been back in Hampton Roads for only a couple of months when she was ordered to Wilmington, N.C. to reinforce the blockade of that port. USS Rhode Island...a big side wheel steamer that acted as a capable Jack Of All Trades for the U.S Navy...was assigned to tow Monitor.
Rhode Island had towed several of the low freeboard Monitor class gunboats south over the preceding months with no incident, so maybe that gave them a bit of false confidence. Maybe they had forgotten just how close Monitor came to sinking while being towed from New York to Hampton Roads. Or maybe they forgot how quickly the weather could turn ugly out on the Atlantic during the winter. One thing is known for sure...this turned out to be one of the top ten bad decisions of The Civil War.

She left Norfolk under tow for Wilmington at 2PM on December 29, 1862 and encountered calm seas and light winds for the first twelve or fourteen hours of the trip...this changed at about five the next morning when swells started running. She had steam up for her ventilation fans and pumps, and her funnel was fitted so she wouldn't ship water into her furnaces through her furnace exhaust uptake, which among other Bad Things, would put out her fires. Before she left Norfolk, oakum caulking had been forced into the gap between her turret and her deck. She was also using her engines to assist in maneuvering. But she was not designed to handle heavy seas.

They entered the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream at about 6:30PM on the thirtieth...Monitor pulled up alongside Rhode Island and Commander Bankhead advised that if they got into trouble he'd hoist a red lantern to the top of her turret mast...then they trailed back in tow. The weather kept getting rougher and Monitor, rather than riding the waves, plunged through them, often appearing to be entirely submerged. To make matters worse one of her towlines let go, and she really began to yaw and roll. This motion, as well as the the shock of her armored raft coming down...hard...against ocean's surface as she plunged into a trough knocked hunks of oakum out of the gap between turret and deck, and water began pouring in through that opening as well as every other vent and hull opening it could find. By 8pm her bilges were full and there was an inch of water in the engine room.

Bankhead ordered her pumps started...first the small Worthington bilge pumps, then her big 3000 GPM centrifugal pump, and they kept up at first...then were breaking even...then started falling behind. Water was reaching the coal bunkers and the damp coal wasn't burning hot enough to keep her steam pressure up. Normally kept at 80lbs, it dropped to 20 lbs.

 Rhode Island tried to turn her into the wind, and this seemed to help for a short time, but by 9:30 PM, she was once again plunging through deep troughs that submerged her briefly to the top of her turret...where several crew members were huddled including Ships Surgeon Grenville Weeks who was able to give a blow by blow description of Monitor's death.

Very likely the best known rendition of Monitor's sinking, with Rhode Island in the background, and the crew desperately trying to get aboard one of Rhode Island's boats as another draws near that ship.

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.By 10PM, her ventilation blowers were spitting water and it was obvious that Monitor was doomed. Even with both pumps running and the big centrifugal pump tossing an eight inch thick stream of water overboard, they weren't able to keep up with the rising water. Bankhead decided to make preparation to abandon ship while she still had steam up for the pumps. He ordered the red lantern hoisted, and ordered the towline...which had sagged, making her even more unmanageable...cut. Master Mate Louis Stodder, Boatswain's Mate John Stocking, and Quarter Gunner James Fenwick immediately climbed down the side of the turret and struggled forward against the seas, Fenwick and Sticking were swept overboard, becoming the first two crew members lost in the ensuing disaster.. Stodder managed to cut the line, then somehow made it back to the turret.

The is lantern was the last thing anyone saw of Monitor before she went down...and was the first artifact recovered from the wreck site. It was found on the bottom next to the turret, amazingly intact but in very fragile condition. It was sent to the Smithsonian Institute for preservation, and spent 7 years there before being returned to the mariner's Museum for display.

 
At 11PM, Rhode Island's engines were stopped, and her boats were launched and their crews pulled towards the Monitor, which is riding lower in the water by the minute. Rhode Island is about to have her own problems though. At 11:30, Bankhead ordered Monitor's engine stopped so all steam could be used for the pumps...but this quickly became a moot point as water finally and inevitably poured into her furnaces, with a sizzling roar that very likely sent stinking steam throughout the ship. That, as they say, was the ball game.

 Bankhead officially ordered the crew to abandon ship. Weeks and several other sailors, hanging on to the safety ropes for all they were worth, headed forward. Three of them are immediately swept away. William Keeler, whose letters to his wife gave us such detailed insight to life aboard Monitor and one the best blow by blow descriptions of the battle that exists, had to slide down a rope from the top of the turret when he found the ladder to the deck packed with terrified sailors. A wave slammed him against one of the lifeline stanchions, and he barely made it to one of the boats.

Neither ship was under power and they drifted together...literally, catching one of Rhode Island's launches between the two hulls. Miraculously the boat not only stayed afloat, but sixteen of Monitor's crew managed to scramble aboard and were taken aboard Rhode Island...but not before a little extra drama occurred aboard the paddle wheeler. Her captain, meanwhile, had ordered her engines started back up in order to pull away from Monitor, but she immediately managed to run over her towline and get it tangled in one of her paddle wheels. Rhode Island's engines were stopped, then several of her crew climbed into the wheel box to try cutting away the towline (Bet THAT was a ride in those seas!) and managed to cut it free by 12:15AM on the 31^st. 

By 12:30 most of Monitor's crew had gotten aboard Rhode Island's boats, but there wasn't quite enough room and several of her crew have to hang on to the top of the turret as the boats pulled back to the paddle wheeler, discharged their passengers, and one of them, under command of Master's Mate Rod Brown, returned. They literally had to talk several of the ironclad's crew off of the top of the turret,....these guys had seen several of their mates washed overboard, and it took a good half hour to pick up the remainder of Monitor's crew. Then they noticed two or three of Monitor's crew hanging on to the turret...and these guys absolutely refused to come down.

Brown promised to return for them and pulled for Rhode Island, which by now, was a good two or so miles distant. Brown and his crew made it to Rhode Island, dropped the Monitors crew members, and pulled hard for the distant, wildly swinging red lantern. Their efforts were in vain, though. Shortly after 1:30AM on Dec. 31^st, 1862 Monitor, went down by the stern and turned turtle, taking at least two, and possibly three crew members with her.

That, of course, wasn't the end of the story either for Brown and his crew or for Monitor. Rhode Island was firing rockets off and 'showing blue lights', apparently steaming away from them. In reality they were searching for them, and they continued the search for the rest of the night and most of the next day but they missed them and ultimately assumed they'd been lost in the rescue attempt. Late on the afternoon of the 31^st,  Rhode Island called off the search and headed for Beaufort, N.C.

Brown and his crew spent a wet, cold, uncomfortable, and down right nasty night aboard the open boat before being picked up by the schooner A Colby the next day. They were taken into Beaufort as well, and ultimately returned to Rhode Island a couple of days later.

Monitor went down 26 miles Southeast of Hatteras, eleven months after she was launched...it wasn't the last she was heard of either.

The Monitor's wreck rested on the bottom of the Atlantic, smack dab in the middle of the renowned Graveyard of the Atlantic for 112 years. The Navy had a pretty good idea where she was...at least the general area...and plans to salvage her were even made. One problem. The technology to find her didn't really exist yet. Searches were carried out, (Using grappling hooks on the ends of long lines)and claims she had been discovered were even made...but there was no way to verify the claims. Given the number of wrecks in the area, they could have 'discovered' any of a number of sunken vessels.

In 1973 a team from Duke University aboard that school's research vessel Eastward decided to take a whack at finding her, and they actually did research and planning and such. They researched the Rhode Island's course and logs, and got hold of a nautical chart of Diamond Shoals and environs there-of from that era, and commenced to 'mowing the lawn'...searching long narrow strips by sailing back and forth towing a sonar buoy...along a strip of ocean measuring 5 miles long by 1 mile wide. They discovered no fewer than 22 wrecks in the process (They don't call Diamond Shoals the Graveyard of the Atlantic for nothing!). Each wreck was compared to a 'Footprint' of what they expected Monitor's wreck to look like, then they narrowed the possibilities down to one choice. The length was right, the beam was right...but where was the turret?

They dropped a waterproof movie camera and a still camera over and towed both over the wreck (And promptly lost the still camera when it snagged on the wreck, causing them to have to get another still camera and rerig) and shot hundreds of still frames and hundreds of feet of film.. Now keep in mind that this was 1973...nearly 40 years ago. State of the art technology back then would be junk now. They got all kind of still pics and film, and all of the video was grainy, fuzzy black and white. The stills, from what I gather weren't much better.

They did know that the wreck was on a sandy bottom 220 feet down and it was the right length, beam, and shape. But where was the turret? And the pilot house. They had a flat expanse of iron hull...oh Crap. She must be upside down,. She was indeed, and that was NOT what they expected.

Ultimately they found the turret, also inverted of course, peeking out from beneath the overturned hull near the stern. A bit under a year later, in April '74, another expedition aboard the deep sea research ship Alcoa Seaprobe was launched. She was a far more sophisticated vessel. She had dynamic positioning capability, allowing her to hover over the wreck without anchors, and she also had a deployable pod that contained side-scan sonar and far more sophisticated TV and still cameras that recorded thousands of images and hours of higher quality video. The stills were used to make a photo-mosaic of her, and the video convinced the most skeptical doubters. Monitor had been found.

The photomosaic made back in '74. The stern is to the left in the picture...look closely at the lower left and you can see the turret peeking out from beneath the hull.

A much later picture from NOAA of the Monitor's stern lying on top of the turret.

A schematic, also from NOAA, of the way Monitor's wreck lay on the borrom before recovery efforts started. Much of her hull had collapsed and the propeller shaft had actually fallen through the hull by the time recovery efforts started in earnest.

OK...now what to do with her. First they had to protect her. The sitting Governor of N.C. nominated her for National Underwater Marine Sanctuary status on Sept 26^th, 1974. The Secretary of the Interior listed her wreck site on the National Register of Historic Places on Sept 26^th, 1974. On Jan 30th, 1975 The Monitor and a column of water one mile in diameter surrounding the wreck was designated as the first U.S. National Marine Sanctuary.

Ok, again, now that they'd found her...what were they gonna do with her???

The full story of the preservation and recovery efforts is far too long and involved to be detailed in their entirety here. She's in good hands though. One of the first acts that occurred after declaring her a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary was to make the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Va her keeper and guardian, so to speak...all recovery and preservation efforts were handled and/or coordinated by their team.

Two of Monitor's most innovative features are at the Museum being restored even as I type this...her engine and her gun turret. The original plan was to raise her and restore the entire ship, but that idea ran into a couple of major hurdles...and they are named 'Money' and 'condition'. The money part was almost a moot point....she would have broken up if they had tried to raise the entire hull. As it was, the propeller and it's shaft had fallen through the inverted hull and were resting on the bottom, shaft angled up into the hull making her appear at fist glance to be right side up when viewed from that angle. The propeller and shaft are both at The Mariners Museum now along with the engine and turret and hundreds of other artifacts. Her sunken remains have become an artificial reef (In fact, have been one for about 150 years now) and home to multitudes of marine life.

Monitors engine over the years after it was recovered. Top is immediately after recovery, with so mauch 'Concretion'...hardened deposits...on it that it's features are all but obscured. The middle and bottom are pics as the concretion was painstakingly removed and the engine revealed.  All three of these pics are flipped to show the engine as she would have appeared in Monitor's engine room, BTW. The engine is upside down in the recovery tank, just as it was on the bottom for 140 years. before being recovered.

Monitor's turret breaks the surface on 8-10-02, just over 140 years after she went down.

The recovery efforts were actually a joint venture between the Navy, The Mariner;'s Museum, and NOAA. The propeller and shaft were raised first, in 1998. Her engine was raised on July 16^th, 2001 and the biggie...recovering her turret...took place on Aug 10, 2002. Both Engine and turret are undergoing detailed and thorough preservation and restoration...a process that will likely take as much as 15 years (But considering that this started in 2001-02, the process should be drawing fairly close to completion.)

Also, a full scale model of Monitor has been built at the Mariner's Museum. Trust me when I say The Mariners Museum is one of the must visit stops if you're ever in the Hampton Roads area.

***Notes, Links, and Stuff***

One thing that's always saddened me a little about the ends of The Virginia's and The Monitor's careers is the huge difference in what happened to them the after their sinking. Great effort and expenditure has been made to preserve the Monitor and to restore her most innovative features, and rightly so. Virginia, however, has been all but forgotten. Very little, if any, remains of Virginia compared to Monitor. A couple of her guns remain (The ones damaged during the battle). Her ship's wheel is on display. A few pieces of her armor remain. It's likely that somewhere some of the commemorative canes made from her timbers are tucked away in attics or closets somewhere. Of course there's a reason for this. The fact that Monitor was on the side that won the war had a lot to do with it, but the locations where the two ships went down had far more of an effect.

Monitor went down in open ocean, is at a depth of 220 or so feet, and posed no threat to navigation. Virginia, on the other hand, was at a depth of about 20 feet (Portions of her were possibly exposed though there's no confirmation of this), was in the middle of a channel in one of the busiest ports in the country and the world, and her wreck actually caused the sinking of another vessel. Also, she'd been stripped (Supposedly) of anything useful before she was blown up. And oh, yeah,,,she burned and exploded, so her wreck wasn't intact. Then her wreck site (Supposedly) was smack dab in the middle of the new channel that was dug to access the Craney Island Fueling Depot built during World Was II, though the finding of a pair of wrecks right next to each other has called that fact into question.

Had she been scuttled in seventy-five or a hundred feet of water out in the middle of the bay with all guns still aboard, I have a feeling her wreck would have met a far different fate.

Tatnall was actually court-martialed for destroying CSS Virginia. He was honorably aquitted of all charges. The court came to the same conclusion that Tatnall came to. Due to Virginia's deep draft, and the fact that attempting to lighten her didn't reduce her draft enough to allow her to pass over the bar, and on top of that exposed her unarmored hull, destroying her so she wouldn't fall into enemy hands was about the only option left to him.

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The search for Brown and his crew after Monitor went down is one of the best examples I can think of how much technology had changed only 40 or 50 years after the war, much less by now. During The Civil War there was no long range communication capability between ships at sea. Rhode Island was on her own in the search. By the early 1900s...forty years later...ships were being equipped with wireless telegraph, and she could have called in the troops so to speak (And indeed could have sent out a distress signal when Monitor got in trouble) Of course any similar incident now...and since at least WWII...would have resulted in a heavy response of both aerial and seaborne resources. The wild thing is, finding them would have relied on the exact same thing...someone looking at the right spot at the right instant. The modern era, and modern technology just put far more eyes in the search, evening out the odds tremendously.

***** 

Both of Monitor's big Dahlgren guns were still in the turret when it was raised, along with their innovative gun carriages....a pleasant surprise as it was first thought that they may have tumbled out when the turret broke free...but there were other artifacts that were puzzling. Silverware, the remains of a wooden chest, and other personal possessions that had the staff and crew undertaking the restoration of the turret kind of rubbing their chins and shaking their heads. Back in the day, it was common for sailors to have their own personal silverware, often inscribed with their initials. One theory is that the crew was actually trying to save the chest, which may have contained the silverware, got it as far as the turret, and decided that saving it wasn't even close to practical. Another is that when she turned turtle as she went down, the chest fell to what was then the overhead of the galley and through the hatch way into the turret (The timing would have had to be astronomical though as the turret was held in place by gravity alone, so it fell free almost as soon as Monitor rolled over). It couldn't have fallen through the deck as the ship deterioated...the turret ended up beneath the stern of the ship, which, of course, was the engineering and machinery portion of the ship.

 

Personal possessions weren't the only thing found in the turret, which of course, was also filled with silt and mud. The skeletal remains of two of the crew were also found. They were likely the two crew members who were still on the turret when Brown headed back for Rhode Island that last time...they probably went back inside the turret for some protection from the storm.

Efforts are being made to identify the remains, which were treated as MIAs and taken to The Army’s Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. (And again this is beyond the scope of this particular article...but it will be looked at in more detail!)

LINKS

As I've noted before it would be all but impossible to include every site dedicated to or including info about Monitor and  Virgina. There are just too freakin' many of them! Here are just a few,

Again, this is one of the most comprehensive sites about CSS Virginia On the Web:

http://cssvirginia.org/

A short but informative article about the discovery of the Monitor. It's a fun site to browse as well, especially if you're into shipwrecks and nautical history

http://www.graveyardoftheatlantic.com/USS_Monitor.htm

Marinors Museum blog that covers all facets of the Mriner's Museum's Monitor recovery, preservation, and restoration efforts.

http://www.marinersmuseum.org/blogs/ussmonitorcenter/

NOAA site about Monitor's discovery:

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/monitor01/background/finding/finding.html

Smithsonian Magazine article about the recovery of Monitor's gun turret.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/history.html

Timeline showing the events of Monitor's final voyage and sinking:

http://www.marinersmuseum.org/uss-monitor-center/last-voyage-monitor-december-24th-forward

Not specifically about the Monitor and Virginia, this is s blog about naval operations in the Civil War (AKA War Of Northern Aggression ;) ) It's detailed, and generally awesome. Be prepared to have a lot of time to read...if you're into Naval history or Civil War History, you WILL get hooked!:

http://civilwarnavy150.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-04-27T20:25:00-04:00&max-results=4&start=4&by-date=false

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The Battle That Almost Never happened or The Virginia and The Monitor Finally Square Off

The Battle That Almost Never happened or The Virginia and The Monitor Finally Square Off

History teachers tend to just barely nick the surface when discussing The Battle of Hampton Roads, and the lower the grade the class is being taught in the tinier that nick's going to be. When our substitute teacher got called out on both misidentifying the Virginia and misspelling Merrimack in that long ago fifth grade class, our 'study' of the battle was very likely a ten minute rehash of the same lesson taught to every elementary school student who has ever studied U.S. History. 'Two ships with metal sides fought each other, neither one sank the other one, wooden ships were then obsolete, The End. This WILL be on the test'.

One very important and always unmentioned little tidbit...the battle between Virginia and Monitor almost never happened because The Monitor almost didn't make it to Hampton Roads in the first place. The weather almost sank her before she got there.. I know...I know...I said The Monitor's crew must have had calm seas on their voyage from Brooklyn to Hampton Roads., but that's not the way it happened.

The Monitor departed Brooklyn (Then a separate city from New York) on March 6^{th ,} under tow but with steam up to run fans, bilge pumps, and the like. Monitor's crew could testify that their trip wasn't exactly an excursion cruise...she was towed through two days worth of the heavy weather that winter...even late winter...in the Atlantic is famous for. She was likely rolling and pitching non stop, with seas regularly washing all the way across her decks, making for a cold, rough, wet, miserable, and downright dangerous trip. The Monitor only had about a foot and a half of freeboard, so any seas higher than flat, dead calm could be a hazard. There was a gap between her deck and the turret and she had boiler air intakes, exhaust uptakes, and vents at or near deck level, not all of which could be closed off. Any sea or swell higher than two feet or so would sweep all the way across her deck and water would, and did, find a way inside her hull. Probably the only things that saved her on her maiden voyage were not running into any real storms, like a classic nor'easter, and her pumps being able to keep up with what water that she did ship. Trust me, she did take on water during her trip, enough to make it a near thing at that. This was, of course, also a foreshadowing of things to come a bit less than a year down the road.

Map of Hampton Roads during the two days of the battle.

According to the action report submitted by Lt. Samuel Greene, her executive officer, Monitor was towed into Hampton Roads at 9 PM on March 8th. My bet is that Jones had her cut loose from her tow, and proceed under her own power to fortress Monroe. (NOTE...some sources say she actually anchored about 10 miles east of Fortress Monroe, at Horseshoe Shoals, but I lean towards her anchoring at Fortress Monroe, near the Roanoke, where her captain John Worden, was given a overview of the days events.) Congress was still burning like a torch at 9PM, painting the western sky orange and making it pretty obvious that something had gone on before their arrival. Worden was briefed on the loss of Cumberland and Congress as well as being told of Minnesota's plight, He was also told that his mission was to cover Minnesota as her crew tried to refloat her. Worden reboarded Monitor, then they immediately took aboard a pilot familiar with Hampton Roads various shoals and shallows and got under way for Minnesota's position. They got under way at about 10PM and reached Minnesota at about 11:30PM.

This is one of the points where stories diverged greatly...Capt. Von Brunt, of Minnesota noted Monitor's time of arrival as 2AM in his action report. Lt Greene...Monitor's exec...however, noted that Worden went aboard Minnesota to find out what was needed, then returned. This discrepancy could well be one of terms. Capt Van Brunt noted that Monitor arrived along side of Minnesota at 2AM, but Monitor could well have been standing off at anchor until that time. Monitor could have arrived in the vicinity of USS Minnesota at about 11:30 PM, then stood off a ways from the grounded frigate from 11:30 to 2AM.. Worden could have logged her time of arrival as the time she anchored (He could have then been taken to Minnesota by ship's boat) while Van Brunt could have noted the time of arrival as when she actually came along side. After coming alongside at 2AM Monitor still backed off for another hour or so while Minnesota's crew tried to get her off the mud bank.  At any rate the elements of the history making battle to follow were all in place by 4AM, when Van Brunt gave up on trying to float the Minnesota, and Monitor anchored along side until dawn.

As for Virginia she broke loose from the battle with Minnesota at about 7PM...it was dark by then, and her pilot had to feel his way to and along the South Channel back to the Elizabeth River and Gosport Navy Yard. She still got a few licks in on the way back though, firing a parting broadside at Minnesota, and trading broadsides with (And doing some damage to) St Lawrence. She was at Gosport by the time Monitor arrived.

The crews of Minnesota and Monitor anticipated Virginia's return at sunrise or just a bit after (That's why Monitor had been sent to cover the Minnesota in the first place) and just as the crews of both ships expected, she reappeared at the mouth of the Elizabeth River at a bit after daybreak...around 6AM according to Minnesota's Captain Van Brunt. Van Brunt had his ship's drummer beat to quarters (Battle Stations) but watched as the Virginia headed out towards Fortress Monroe, following the channel. He knew it'd be at least another hour before they engaged, so he had his crew secure from quarters to grab breakfast, then resume battle stations as she approached. She ran east along the south channel, past an area known as 'The Rip Raps', then, according to several witnesses, swung west into the north channel, hugging the edge of the channel and approaching Minnesota slowly from the east .

Minnesota opened up on Virginia with her stern pivot gun when she closed to with-in a mile, Virginia answered with her bow gun but neither caused any damage to the other worth mentioning. Monitor was close in to Minnesota,on her starboard side between the frigate and the shore line, with steam already up and her crew already at battle stations. Van Brunt signaled to her to engage the Virginia...Worden rang for all ahead, and the Monitor eased out from behind Minnesota, slowly picking up speed, making for the Virginia with water beginning to curl white at her bow. 

This is possibly what it looked like from Monitor's deck as they approached Virginia. The turret would have been turned to one side or the other because she couldn't fire directly across her bow for fear of hitting her own pilothouse. Pic's from art.com

 

There are several accounts of the battle on record, including several letters written by The Monitor's paymaster, William Keeler, to his wife, providing us with a blow by blow eyewitness account of the battle. The official action reports of all of the ships involved have also been preserved along with interviews and articles for magazines that were written and published after the war. The articles seem to go into far more colorful detail than the official reports, but the reports are likely to be far more accurate as to what happened and when it happened. The letters from Keeler to his wife are absolute gems. Of course most of Keeler's account is written as an observer from below decks though he and the ships doctor were on deck for the beginning of the battle. This is in fact how Keeler heard some somewhat critical remarks from Minnesota's crew. Keeler noted in a letter to his wife that the Minnesota's crew had far more respect for the Virginia's ability to turn them into kindling that they had for the Monitor's ability to prevent that event from occurring, and it all boiled down to size and number of mounted guns. Virginia after all, was tiny and only mounted two guns...how could she possibly take on and defeat the Confederate Navy's fire breathing behemoth? Minnesota's crew was, of course, in for a very pleasant surprise.

.

Keeler and the ship's doctor were on deck as they eased from behind the Minnesota and made for Virginia. Jones was trying to maneuver Virginia into position to swing broadside to Minnesota and do the same thing to her that they'd done to Congress the day before...pump broadside after broadside into her until she either surrendered or was a burning wreck.

Virginia opened fire first...Keeler described a puff of smoke from Virginia and then, seconds later, the screaming howl of a big shell passing overhead and slamming into the side of Minnesota. It was at that point that Worden advised them very strongly to go below, and Keeler noted that they didn't need a second invitation, but climbed the tower (Referring to the turret) and then down the main hatchway and into the hull.

Minnesota answered Virginia with a screaming broadside that howled it's way over Monitor on the way to Virginia. This had had the same basic effect as the broadsides she'd fired the day before...huge splashes and a lot of noise, with a couple of hits that did noting but careen loudly off of Virginia's sloped, armored sides. Virginia answered with her rifled bow gun, managing to hit Minnesota amidships, the shell tearing through the Chief Engineer's stateroom and the engineers' mess room, exploding in the boatswain's room and starting a fire that the Minnesota's crew managed to extinguish before it caused major damage.

Interesting if inaccurate (Position-wise) aerial view of the beginning stages of the battle. Virginia never got anywhere near this close to Minnesota...she would have been hard aground if she had. The two ironclads didn't square off at this close range until late into the battle. Also, Virgina swung so her broadside was facing Minnesota to bring as many of her guns to bear as possible. Still an awesome painting,, perspective and quality wise though!                  Painting's from altontobey.com

This is a much closer representation of the range between the Virginia and the Minnesota, and was about the range between the two ironclads during a good portion of the battle. The only thing that's off...Monitor appears to be firing over her own bow.

Worden's goal was to engage Virginia and draw her as far away from the Minnesota as possible, then hopefully drive her off altogether if not sink her. As Monitor closed on Virginia, Worden told his gun crews to hold off '...Until I give the word, then to be be cool & deliberate, to take sure aim & not waste a shot." They took him at his word, closing to within a third of a mile before opening fire at about 9:45 AM, then closing rapidly, placing themselves between Virginia and Minnesota, and making good use of her huge advantage in maneuverability. Virginia opened up with a couple of broadsides early on as the Monitor passed close in and they had absolutely no effect on her... most of Virginia’s shot was canister and grape shot which was less than useless against Monitor's armor.

Sharpshooters on board Virginia tried to fire into Monitor's gun ports, targeting the gunners them selves, but met with no success. Monitor's gun crews seldom exposed themselves outside of the gun ports for this very reason (Other than one Monitor gunner who stuck his head out of one of the gun ports, then ducked back in, grinning as he shook his head in amazement, and exclaimed that 'The damn fools are firing canister at us!' Canister is several small iron balls contained in a metal canister, closed off at each end with wooden or light metal disks...in essence a giant shot gun shell which is of absolutely no use what so ever against an armored vessel.).

Some reports state that the Monitor's gun crews tried using the port covers (Called 'Pendulums' by the crew) early on but that the things required the entire gun crew to operate them. This was abandoned early in the battle and the 'Turn the turret away, fire on the fly' tactic that I posted about earlier was employed. Virginia's exec also mentioned Monitor using this very tactic..firing on the fly, then rotating the turret so that the gun ports faced away from Virginia. He questioned how they could take accurate aim in the few seconds that the guns were visible, then noted that Virginia was a big target. He also noted that Virginia's deep draft and lack of maneuverability made her difficult to handle, and that Monitor moved around her at will. 

This has always been one of my favorite images from the battle, and also accurately illustrates the range between the Minnesota and the ironclads.  From history.navy.mil

 

Early on in the battle, (Most sources say about 10AM) Virginia proved just how much of a disadvantage her deep draft and sluggish handling was when she managed to find a sand bar and ground herself, allowing Monitor to pretty much have her way with her. As Virginia worked herself loose, Monitor took a position where none of Virginia's guns could be brought to bear and pounded away at the Confederate ironclad while Minnesota also blasted away at her, probably with one of her rifled pivot guns. Virginia was in a far more precarious position that her opponents realized because her armor hadn’t been extended down but about 3 feet below her waterline. The expenditure of coal and shot over the last two days had lightened her just enough to expose her wooden hull at the waterline, but not enough to keep her from grounding. Had Monitor's crew seen this, they could have lobbed a couple of shells into her at the waterline and ended the battle right there. Virginia's crew knew this and they were sweating bullets. They tried backing off and found themselves stuck solidly. They brought anything that would burn faster and hotter than coal to the boiler room and threw it into the fireboxes, also tying down the safety valves to give them more steam pressure. This was a dangerous tactic for sure, but they had a bigger problem about a hundred yards away from them.

Photograph of a very good photorealiatic painting of the battle..this well could have been the scene when Monitor was aground during the early stages of the battle. Though one of her boats is shown here, both were actually shot away the day before during the battle with the Cumberland.  Pic's from history.navy.mil

The Virginia's prop churned at full reverse, churning up clouds of mud, for about fifteen minutes that probably felt more like about fifteen hours before she popped free, and not a second too soon at that... While Monitor's crew hadn't noticed the exposed sliver of wooden hull, they were able to pound her from point blank range and send shell after shell into the same area on Virginia's casemate, nearly breaching it. The wooden backing was pushed in as much as two to three inches and the armor was cracked. Another round or two at the same spot would have sent a shell through her armor and into her gun deck. As it was, her after gun crews were knocked to the deck, and several were bleeding from the ears and nose just from the concussion of the hits.

At that point in the battle a frustrated Jones decided that if they couldn't damage Monitor with gun fire, they'd try to ram her. That would actually be easier said than done with Monitor’s far superior maneuverability...remember, this wasn't a PT boat we're talking about here. All maneuvers were executed slowly, and she had the acceleration of...well...a cruise ship. It took 30 minutes for them to maneuver into a position to ram (With Monitor pounding away at them the whole time) and when they finally got into position and started their run for her from about a half mile out, Monitor had plenty of time to react., Worden saw what was up, and likely told his helmsman to put the helm over HARD, as he also likely rang for full ahead . Instead of a solid blow, Virginia's bow glanced off of them. Unbeknown to Lt Jones, Virginia had left her iron ram embedded in the hull of the now sunken Cumberland. By ramming Monitor they actually damaged their own vessel far more than they did their opponent. Virginia's bow was crushed in a bit, and she developed a minor, but aggravating leak forward. Monitor suffered what was basically cosmetic damage...a bit of wrinkled armor just above the waterline on her armored raft. The impact threw a couple of her crew to the deck, bounced a few loose items around, and did nothing whatsoever to slow Monitor down at all.

Jones attempted to organize a boarding party to go aboard the Monitor and disable her turret, obscure the view from the pilot house, or both...Worden had anticipated just such a move and ordered one gun loaded with canister as well as ordering the helm over, and ringing for engines, moving smartly (For that era anyway) away from Virginia. This is when he found he had a problem of his own...both guns were loaded with solid shot...one gun was fired, and seeing the damage to Virginia's armor, Worden ordered the second gun to fire. The primer snapped, but the gun didn't fire...one round (Or more likely, the powder charge) was stuck halfway down the barrel of the big gun. the shell, of course, was stuck as well but that was a moot point. (Again, remember all of the big guns during the civil war, and for decades afterward, were muzzle loaders). With the powder charge not rammed home, the primer couldn't ignite it, and the gun wouldn't fire. The other gun had been fired, so they were now without a functional weapon. Monitor's guns wouldn't depress enough to just let the shot roll out of the barrel. On top of that, they were also low on shot and powder in the turret. Time, as the old fella says, to back up and regroup.

This was around 11AM...just over two hours into the battle. Monitor hauled off into shallow water to refill her shot lockers from her magazine, and to try to clear the jammed gun.. According to contemporary press reports she had to 'let her guns cool', She was, of course, within an inch or so...literally...of doing Virginia real damage just before this happened as her cannon fire had almost breached Virginia's armor.

While Monitor was temporarily out of action, Minnesota and Virginia traded a few more broadsides none of which did any damage..to Minnesota anyway. Virginia did hit and sink the tug Dragon, which was assisting in trying to refloat the Minnesota. Monitor's crew cleared her jammed cannon, replenished her ready supply of shot and powder, and she boiled back into the fight, announcing her return with a couple of quick shots that only blanged off of the Virginia's sloped sides and added to the already pounding headaches her gun crews had likely developed.

The two ironclads then dug in, fighting at extremely close range throughout the rest of the battle...from 50 yards to as little as 10-20 yards, and at times it was reported that they were all but touching. Both were firing at each other as fast as their gun crews could run the guns in, reload, run 'em out, and fire but as discussed in a previous post, what was considered rapid fire back then would be dawdling now...each gun if well handled could get a shot off about every 7-10, minutes.



A good, accurate view of the battle when it got down, dirty, and close range. Note that the Virginia's decks are awash, as they actually would have been...that's how she was designed.. Virginia's  flag staff was actually shot away early on, and her battle ensign was flown from her shell riddled funnel for a good portion of the battle.  Pic is from A S Barnes and Company, from an 1871 wood engraving.



At about 11:30 Worden decided to give out a little payback, and ram Virginia, trying to hit her stern in an attempt to disable her rudder or screw . He ordered the helm over, rang for full speed ahead, and ordered the crew to brace for impact. Like Jones had with Virginia, Worden hauled off from Virginia to give himself some running space, then headed right for her stern...I can almost hear him telling the helmsman something to the effect of 'Get her dead astern...see if you can push her rudder slam into her screw' and he was close to doing just that...with her superior maneuverability, she could match any evasive action Virginia tried to take, and she was within yards of Virginia when her own steering malfunctioned and she swung wide with no assistance from the helm, missing Virginia's stern by a few feet.

At that range someone was bound to get lucky before it was over, and one of Virginia's gunners did just that as Monitor passed close astern. There were three people in Monitor's tiny pilot house...Worden; the pilot (Who was directing the helmsman around areas too shallow for Monitor to navigate); and Quartermaster /helmsman Peter Helms. Worden wormed his way close to the view port (Likely cursing all things rudder and steering) as they passed astern of Virginia. At the same moment, Virginia's stern gun...a 7 inch Brooke rifled gun...let go with a round that struck the forward port corner of the pilot house and exploded just as Worden was looking through the view port. He was immediately blinded but still gave orders for the helm to be put over to starboard and for them to withdraw to assess damage. He also had Lt Green...his exec...called to the pilot house to take over command. Worden was assisted to his cabin, and became the worst injured among both crews, blinded permanently in one eye..

Green and a couple of other sailors assisted Worden to his cabin, then they began to asses the damage to their ship. Meanwhile, over on Virginia, Jones watched Monitor pull away and decided she'd left the fight. He had a quick conference with his officers and gun crews. The gun crews were beyond exhausted. The tide was going out so they weren't going to get any closer to Minnesota. And they still had that pesky leak at the bow...the decision was made to head back for Gosport for repairs.

Monitor hadn't quit the fight though. But the fight had quit her. When Green returned to the pilot house, he found Virginia steaming away towards Norfolk. They fired a couple more shots at her at long range but didn't pursue. The time was about 12:15PM. The first battle between ironclad warships...and one of the most important in the history of navel warfare...was over.

SO...Who won the thing?

That question's been debated and argued and generally chewed on for 150 years. The aforementioned history classes tell you that the battle was a draw and technically, the battle itself was a draw. Neither ship was put out of action, and both actually withdrew.

Virginia won the 'Who caused the most damage' game by a very narrow margin because of that well timed, very lucky shot that hit Monitor's pilot house. Monitor did withdraw from the battle because of this hit and because her captain believed her steering gear to be damaged. Worden was also seriously injured in the battle, and had the dubious distinction of being the only member of either crew to suffer serious injury during the clash between the two ironclads. So, as for the battle itself:

Monitor withdrew temporarily to assess battle damage and so her crew could tend to Worden and command could be transferred to Green. There was full intent to return to the fray.

Virginia withdrew because Lt Jones, thought Monitor had withdrawn, and because her crew was exhausted. She had battle damage as well and was taking on water and the actual reason for their sortie...destruction of Minnesota...was once again impossible due to low tide.

Virginia was the only one of the two taking on water...but she actually inflicted that damage upon herself when Jones rammed Monitor, not realizing that Virginia's ram had been broken off and left in Cumberland's hull the previous day. She also had far heavier damage than Monitor...her boats, ventilators, rails, and flag staff had been shot away, her stack was riddled, and two of her guns had been damaged. The majority of that damage occurred the day before, however, when she was the victor by a huge margin, and none of the damage affected her ability to fight

SO (And part of this is my opinion) while neither ship was put out of action IMO the tactical victory goes to Virginia by a very very tiny margin, and only because of the injury to Worden.

Strategically, now...that's a different story.. Monitor won that one hands down. First off, she accomplished her primary and immediate mission, that of protecting Minnesota. While Virginia did manage to damage Minnesota, the damage was fairly insignificant and was more of an inconvenience to her engineering officers than a danger to the ship or a hindrance to her ability to wage war. To strip the military terms away, most of the damage was done to the engineers' living spaces and the Boatswain's Rm, which contained equipment needed for maintenance of the ship. When the Monitor and Virginia went their separate ways, Minnesota was intact though still aground.

More importantly, Virginia failed at her primary goal...that of breaking the blockade of Hampton Roads. Though the two ships never met in battle again, Monitor's presence in Hampton Roads kept Virginia at bay, though Virginia did try to lure the Union ironclad into another engagement several times (As will be touched on in more detail later). The Union blockade was not only maintained, it was strengthened, one of the factors leading to the Confederate retreat from Hampton Roads only a few months after the battle.

Another major win for the Union forces was political. Though England was officially neutral, they supported the CSA with materials and warships and there was hope among the Confederate Government, that they, along with France, would enter the war on the side of The CSA. The failure of Virginia to break the blockade, and the retaking of Hampton Roads by the U.S. was one of several factors (Most of them political rather than military) that prevented this from happening.

***********************Notes, Links, and Stuff**************************

The Monitor could have won it hands down if The Department Of The Navy had allowed them to use full powder charges in their guns. Those big 11” Dahlgrens were normally fired with a 30 pound powder charge, giving them a range of 3650 yards. The combination of two big Dahlgrens and a small confined space had never been tried out in battle before, though, and the debacle aboard The Princeton was well remembered. The powers that be really didn't want to destroy their own super weapon due to a gun turret explosion so they ordered the powder charge reduced by 50%, to 15 pounds. This increased the safety factor markedly, but it also reduced the muzzle velocity proportionately. Even with the reduced 15 pound powder charge they were pushing the heavy oak backing of The Virginia's armor in, and cracking the armor itself. If Monitor's crew had been using full powder charges in their guns their shells would have very likely punched trough Virginia's armor and wreaked deadly havoc on her gun deck.

She also had another chance to sink Virginia. Had anyone noticed that her wooden hull was exposed forward because of expenditure of coal and ammunition, and had they been able to depress one of their guns enough to put a shell through her at the waterline, one of those big 11” shells would have torn a door sized hole in Virginia's hull, putting her on the bottom in just a few minutes.

By the same token, if Virginia hadn't left her ram in Cumberland's hull and had been so equipped when she rammed Monitor, she could have probably holed the Union ironclad below the waterline. Monitor wasn't armored below her 'raft'. Her hull was constructed of ¾ inch iron plates, riveted together. If Virginia had still had her ram, and managed to maneuver to hit Monitor below the waterline (Admittedly two BIG ifs) with 3200 or so tons of momentum behind her, it's very likely likely that she would have holed Monitor and sunk her.

Had Virginia's crew been able to board Monitor, they could have disabled her turret by jamming wedges into the opening between the turret and the deck, preventing the turret from rotating (The technical term would be 'Jammed in Train'). If they were really lucky, the turret would be jammed with the guns aimed over the bow...preventing them from firing at all. Virginia then could have stood off at an angle where the guns couldn’t be brought to bear, and pounded Monitor. Any Monitor sailors coming on deck to remove the wedges would have been easy pickings for a sharp shooter or two on Virginia. Monitor would have been reduced to maneuvering to bring her guns to bear. With her huge advantage in maneuverability, though, the question would have to be asked, just how much of an advantage would this have been for Virginia?

* * * * *

With each gun firing at a rate of 1 shot every 5-7 minutes or so each gun should have gotten off about 30 rounds in the three and a half hour battle. This gives us a more realistic idea of just how many shots each of the ironclads got off during any given portion of the battle. During the fifteen minutes that The Virginia was aground, for example, Monitor's two gun crews could have gotten 3-4 shots off at the most...and they still nearly breached Virginia's armor with them. Virginia had more guns, and was capable of getting off more shots, but just how accurate were her gun crews? We're going to have to do some serious guesstimating here. Only 6 guns, at the most, and more than likely 2 to four most of the time, could could have been brought to bear. Also there were at least 45 minutes when little or no firing was being done. (When she was aground, and when she was maneuvering to ram). That brings us down to 2 hours and 45 minutes available to fire on Monitor. We'll be generous and say the average was three guns able to draw a bead on Monitor, and that each gun crew was firing one round every 7 minutes. They would have gotten off 70 shots. But how accurate were they. That we know, thanks to all the documentation that was saved. Monitor was hit 22 times during the course of the battle, or just a shade under one third of the estimated number of shots actually fired at her...not too shabby considering the changing positions of the ships and the Monitor's maneuverability. As for just how much damage was done...very little with one exception. Most of the damage done was cosmetic (And still visible on Monitor's recovered turret, 150 years later). The one exception was, of course, the round that hit Monitor's pilot house.

As for Monitor, I'm going to go out on a limb and say her accuracy was probably a bit higher due to her ability to get in close to the Virginia. Also, from the research I did, the 'Shoot on the Fly' tactic of firing while the turret was in motion didn't affect her accuracy all that much.

Just for comparisons sake...during WWII, the 5” guns mounted on destroyers and destroyer escorts could maintain a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute, and a good gun crew could hit 22 rounds per minute.

* * * * *

Most of The Virginia's Gun crew were also Norfolk Volunteer Firemen. (the term 'Firefighters' wouldn't be coined for over a century). They were members of the United Fire Company, and they and their captain, Thomas Kevill, volunteered en masse for Army service and were known as the United Artillery Company 'E' of the 41^st Artillery. They volunteered to man Virginia's guns just two days before the battle.

Thomas Kevill survived the war to become the first Chief of the salaried Norfolk Fire Department

* * * * *

One humorous exchange on board Virginia came as she was preparing to ram Monitor.

Virginia's executive officer was coming down the ladder way from the spar deck (The top of the casemate) and saw one of the gun crews standing around doing nothing. He asked the gun crew's captain...a noncom named Eggleston...why he wasn't firing at Monitor.

Eggleston replied that their powder supply was beginning to get a bit low...they'd been firing for better then two hours at that point...and that: 'I can do her just about as much damage by snapping my fingers at her every two and a half minutes!'

Jones simple said something to the effect of 'Never mind...we're getting ready to ram her anyway.

* * * * *

Lt Green, Monitor's executive Officer, and acting captain after Worden was injured, was roundly condemned by many for not pushing forward with the attack on Virginia after Worden was injured. I've got mixed feelings on this (As if I'm a learned Naval tactician!)

but I tend to agree with Green. His captain had been seriously injured, and he had an undetermined amount of damage to his ship. One of the first things an officer should do upon assuming command in the middle of an action is to determine what his exact situation is, either by being given an update or by checking it out himself himself. Worden thought Monitor's steering had been damaged, and communicated this to Greene...in fact, Worden was the one who gave the order to haul away to access damage. By the time Greene assisted Worden to his cabin and determined that Monitor still had steering, and was otherwise undamaged, Virginia was heading back towards Gosport. Monitor's assigned task was not to sink the Virginia...it was to protect Minnesota. which she had done successfully. This was an ongoing task after the battle...Minnesota was still hard aground. Anyone think that, once the tide came back in, Virginia wouldn't have taken full advantage of the situation had Greene left Minnesota unprotected and headed for Fortress Monroe?

Greene saw to it that Worden was transferred to another vessel so he could be taken ashore and provided further medical treatment, then returned to Minnesota, where he stayed until she was refloated early the next morning.

* * * * *

It was obvious that Minnesota's crew had been trying diligently to refloat her when Monitor anchored along side. All manner of shipboard and personal items had been thrown overboard to lighten her, and were floating alongside when Monitor arrived.

* * * * *

The Battle between the Virginia and The Monitor was the death knell of the wooden warship. The British Navy canceled all construction of wooden warships immediately after the battle, as did several other nations. The battle ended the era of the wooden broadside warship, and kicked off the era of the turreted navel gun, and the battleship.
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The battle, and it two combatants, are remembered out in Moab, Utah, 762 miles from the nearest ocean, and 2,096 miles almost due west from Hampton Roads...and it's remembered in a big way. There are a pair of big buttes (Mesas) near Moab that, from a distance, resemble the Virginia's casemate and the Monitor's turret. The pair of buttes are named 'The Monitor and The Merrimac' using the popular names for the ironclads, and yep, misspelling 'Merrimack' The buttes overlook Sevenmile Canyon, off of State Highway 313, northwest of Moab. both tower 600 feet above the surrounding terrain.



Monitor and Merrimac Buttes, near Moab, Utah. Pic by Dave Beedon. For a look at Mr Beedon's pics of the area...this is beautiful if desolate country..click here: http://www.pbase.com/listorama/pl_ut_moab2_monmer



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There is all kind of info about The Battle of Hampton Roads out there, and I'm not going to even try to pretend that any of what I posted is new, uncovered info. What I did do is find a slew of awesome sites for the history-minded among us.

First off, and once again, The CSS Virginia Home Page:

http://cssvirginia.org/

Especially take note of the links to the left, most especially 'Ironclad Battle'. Click that link to get commentary and action reports from both days of the battle.

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In the same vein:

http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/civilwar/hamptonroads.htm#roanoke

Action reports from every major ship involved in the battle from both days and on both sides

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http://www.minecreek.org/confederate-ironclad/combat.html

A very very detailed write-up on the battle between the Monitor and the Virginia, complete with some beautiful illustrations.

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http://www.marinersmuseum.org/uss-monitor-center/battle-hampton-roads-march-9

A very concise time-line of the battle from The Mariner's Museum in Newport News. The Mariners' Museum site is awesome in and of itself. The Museum is even better in person.

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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/battle.html

William Keeler's letters to his wife giving a blow by blow account of the battle, from the NOVA site. Definitely worth the read! Links to a page with info about the letters and William Keeler on the upper part of the page.