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Seeking to interdict Federal naval operations in Hampton Roads, the ironclad CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimack) left its berth at Norfolk and steamed out to attack the nearby Union ships. Under the command of Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, the CSS Virginia headed straight for the USS Cumberland off Newport News. Around 2pm on March 8, 1862, the CSS Virginia struck the Cumberland with its 1,500lb iron ram, smashing a huge hole in its wooden hull. Despite the mortal blow delivered to the Cumberland, the CSS Virginia, which had become entangled within the shredded hull of its opponent, was also at risk of...

On this date in 1862, the first naval battle between two ironclad ships took place as the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia fought to a draw over the course of three hours in the Battle of Hampton Roads near Chesapeake Bay. The battle changed naval warfare practices around the world almost immediately, as naval powers started constructing ironclad ships and incorporating other advances seen in the battle into the new ships in their navies.

Washington was replete with panic as word of the previous day’s destruction reached its doorstep. The ravaging and ruin wrought by the ironclad CSS Virginia (once the USS Merrimack) at Hampton Roads was utterly astonishing. After nightfall, as the USS Congress smoldered, fixing its thick black smoke to the Hampton Roads horizon, and as several other ships were run aground, General Wool at Fortress Monroe reported the travesty to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The note had to first travel to Baltimore before being telegraphed to Washington, leaving the citizens the entire night to be peacefully passed. But at 9:30am,...

Faces of Civil War sailors from sunken USS Monitor reconstructed in hopes of identifying them Faces of 2 USS Monitor crewmembers reconstructed Recovery: The turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor is lifted out of the ocean off the coast of Hatteras, N.C. on August 5, 2002 RICHMOND, Va. — When the turret of the Civil War ironclad Monitor was raised from the ocean bottom, two skeletons and the tattered remnants of their uniforms were discovered in the rusted hulk of the Union Civil War ironclad, mute and nameless witnesses to the cost of war. A rubber comb was...

1847 - Navy leads successful amphibious assault near Vera Cruz, Mexico. 1862 - First battle between ironclads, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.

This Day In History | Civil War March 8 1862 C.S.S. Virginia terrorizes Union navy The Confederate ironclad Virginia wrecks havoc on a Yankee squadron off Hampton Roads, Virginia. The C.S.S. Virginia was originally the U.S.S. Merrimack, a forty-gun frigate launched in 1855. The Merrimack served in the Caribbean and was the flagship of the Pacific fleet in the late 1850s. In early 1860, the ship was decommissioned for extensive repairs at the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia. It was still there when the war began in April 1861, and Union sailors sank the ship as the yard was...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Naval Historical Center (NHC) recently transferred a 9-inch Civil War-era Dahlgren cannon, originally from the famous Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, to the Fredericksburg Area Museum, Fredericksburg, Va.This cannon, named after its designer, Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren, is one of a few surviving artifacts saved from the famous ironclad, and was one of six cannons that were used by the ship.Built from the scuttled remains of the Union sloop of war USS Merrimack, Virginia set out against the blockading Union fleet off Norfolk, Va., March 7, 1862.The next day, this particular Dahlgren cannon was damaged during...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The museum conserving artifacts from the wreckage of the USS Monitor also is trying to tell the story of the Union ship's Confederate opponent in the historic first clash of ironclads.So when a private collector recently offered to sell the drawing that guided the construction of the CSS Virginia, The Mariners' Museum snapped it up."It's a spectacularly valuable historic document," said John Hightower, the museum's president and chief executive officer, because it was instrumental in convincing the Confederate navy to build a ship covered in iron plates to repel cannon balls.However, whether the drawing will end...

PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- An underwater survey found what might be remnants of the Confederate ironclad warship Virginia, the former USS Merrimack that fought the Union's ironclad Monitor in the 1862 battle that redefined naval warfare. "It would be a stroke of incredible luck to discover it after all these years," said Dick Hoffeditz, curator of the Virginia War Museum in Newport News. The underwater survey, for the proposed construction of a marine terminal on the Elizabeth River, describes two shipwrecks in the area and says there is "a distinct possibility" that they might be parts of the Virginia and of...