Further Development
The battle of Hampton Roads received considerable international attention. On March 29, 1862, the London Times announced, There is an end of wooden ships, and the Americans are now recognizing the fact to some purpose. Although they already had the Warrior and Ironsides, plus nine other ironclads under construction, the British hurriedly committed themselves to the further extension of their fleet of ironclad vessels. In France, the Paris Constitutionnel claimed that the Civil War in America...
The Combatants
the Monitor the next day. Following recovery, Buchanan was promoted to the rank of admiral and sent to command Confederate Navy forces on Mobile Bay, Alabama. He supervised construction of the ironclad CSS Tennessee and was on board her during the engagement with Farragut's Union fleet on August 5, 1864. Wounded once again, and taken prisoner, he was finally exchanged In February 186S. Naval Historical Foundation photo NH 562 2 The executive officer of the CSS Virginia was Franklin Old Buck...
Aftermath
In the years following the Civil War, many of the monitors of the US Navy were sold at bargain prices as Congress failed to recognize the need to maintain a substantial presence at sea. The Canonicus-class vessels Catawba and Oneota were sold to Peru in 1868. Cairo-class monitors such as the Chimo, Cohoes, Etlah, Klamath, Modoc, and Shiloh were sold for private use, or were broken up in 1874. The legislators of the time failed to acknowledge or appreciate the fact that the United States had...
Richmondclass Ironclad Technical Specifications
Dimensions Length, 172 ft 6 in Beam, 34 ft Boilers Two The only occasion when a Posso c-class Union monitor clashed with a Confederate casemated ironclad ended with the defeat of the latter vessel. On June 17,1863, the CSS Atlanta attacked the blockading fleet in Wassaw Sound, off the Georgia coast. Encountering the monitors Weehawken and Nahant, she was overcome by the greater firepower of the Weehawken, ran aground, and surrendered. This late-19th-century print by E Gutekunst of Philadelphia...
Uss Merrimack
Designed by Chief Naval Constructor John Lenthall in 1854, the USS Merrimack often incorrectly spelled Merrimac was the first of a new class of steam frigate in the US Navy to be driven by a screw propeller. Built and launched at Boston on June 15,1855, and commissioned February 20,1856, she was named for the river that flows south through New Hampshire and then eastward across northeastern Massachusetts before emptying in the Atlantic at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Also designed by Lenthall,...
Combat
The day of the duel between the Virginia and Monitor dawned with fog lingering near Norfolk, Virginia. From the spar deck of the Confederate ironclad moored at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, Lieutenant Jones observed the Minnesota was still aground, and that an iron battery, in all probability the Monitor, was close by her. Regardless of the fact that she was not supplied with the armor-penetrating bolts necessary to damage or sink another ironclad, he committed Virginia to battle. Shortly...
Cascoclass Monitor Technical Specifications
Dimensions Length, 225 ft Beam, 45 ft Draft 9 ft 6 in. Designed speed 9 knots Tonnage 1,1 5 except Squando 1,618 and Nausett 1,48 Engines Two inclined direct-acting engines Crew size 69 Armament One Xl-inch smoothbore, except Cohoes, Shawnee, Squando, Wassuc two Xl-inch smoothbores Tunxis one Xl-inch smoothbore, one 150-pdr rifle Casco, Napa, Naubuc one Xl-inch smoothbore, one spar torpedo Chimo, one 150-pdr rifle, one spar torpedo Modoc, one spar torpedo Of the other Union seagoing monitors,...
Design And Development
In the first few months of the American Civil War, experimenting with warships naturally moved to the bottom of the list of priorities for the US Navy, as the North concentrated on the implementation of the blockade at sea and the overland campaign to bring the seceded Southern states to heel. By contrast, the newly formed Confederate States Navy CSN urgently required a means to overcome the vastly superior Union navy and looked to the developing technology of ironclads for a solution. Indeed,...
Uss Monitor
Dimensions Length, 173 ft Beam, 41 ft 4 in Draft, 10 ft 4 in. Designed speed knots Acquisition Built by contract with John Ericsson at Green Point, Long Island Launch January 30,1862 Cost 275,000-S280,000 Engines Two horizontal, double piston rod, condensing engines made at the Cold Springs Foundry, New York Boilers Four Martin-type with average steam pressure of 18 lb Armament Four single-banded Brooke rifles and six 9in. Dahlgren shell guns Crew Size 320 Class Monitor screw steamer iron and...
Chronology
Destruction of original USS Merrimack at Gosport Navy Yard CSS Atlanta launched at Savannah, Georgia, but not completed and commissioned until nearly 16 months later Merrimack salvaged by Confederates Union Ironclad Board established CSS Manassas becomes the first Confederate ironclad to attack a Union blockading ship USS Carondelet first Cairo-class river ironclad launched Photographed circa July 1862, Lieutenant William N. Jeffers, commanding the USS Monitor after the battle of Hampton Roads,...
The Strategic Situation
When the Civil War began, President Lincoln met with his generals to devise a strategy by which the rebellious Southern States could be brought back into the Union. Major General Winfield Scott, the aged commander of the US Army since 1841, proposed a plan of campaign that became known as the Anaconda Plan. A native of Virginia, Scott believed that the majority of Southerners did not support secession and desired complete reunification with the United States. In order to restore the Union with...