Monitor vs. the Merrimac 
March 8-9, 1862
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Hampton, VA
Updated Tuesday, March 09, 2010 6:55 PM
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Click on the map for Interactive, Aerial and Birds Eye Views.
The Monitor vs. the Merrimac
Most of the pictures on this page were taken at the park located on the left bank of the creek in the above picture.
The Commanders
USS Monitor
Lt. John Worden
CSS Virginia (Merrimac)
Captian Franklin Buchanan (On the first day, he lost his leg to a mini ball)
Lt. Catesby Jones (Replaced Buchanan for the second day's battle)
A note on the name of the Merrimac: The CSS Virginia was first commisioned as the USS Merrimac and was burned by the the Union when Portsmouth was abandoned at the start of the Civil War. The ship burned to the waterline but did not sink, so the Confederates rebuilt the ship as an ironclad and rechristened it as the CSS Virginia. What to call the Merrimac, the Merrimack, or the Virginia can get as confusing as what to call Sailor's Creek; I've seen it called by all three names in one sorce or another. Traditionally the name most used has been the Merrimac so that is what I'll call it, but a lot of sources will disagree.
Scroll down for pictures.
The Monitor (top) and the Merrimac
Looking out in the river from the Overlook park on a foggy day.
Looking from the park toward Newport News from Overlook Park. The USS Cumberland and the USS Congress were anchored in the channel off Newport News.
Looking out toward Sewel's Point.
Looking back toward shore from the end of the pier. The spectators were lined up along the shoreline.
Looking from the end of the pier back toward Hampton. The little bump on the extream right of the picture is Fort Monroe.
Fort Monroe off in the distance. The fort fired on the Merrimac on the first day of the battle. The water tower in the left of the photo is in Phoebus, the site of Camp Hamilton. The USS Minnesota, the St, Lawrence and the Roanoke were anchored at Fort Monroe. When the Merrimac was sighted the three ships weighed anchor and set sail.
Big, new iron clads across the way at Sewl's Point in Norfolk.
The Merrimac didn't attack alone, but as part of the Confederate James River Squadon. While the Merrimac attacked the Congress the rest of the Confederate ships attacked the Minnesota. The Minnesota ran aground and because the tide was going out the Minnesota was saved from further attack.
Most of the fighting between the two iorn clads was in this stretch of water and the next picture.
The battle site, you can see the far shore so the two ships were limited in their movements.
The supposted persepctive of the painting at the top of the page is from the immediate left of the bridge.
The Significance of the Monitor vs. the Merrimac
The epic First Battle of the Ironclads was watched by the people of Hampton and Newport News from the park where these pictures were taken. Hampton Roads off Sewell’s Point is a narrow waterway. The two ships maneuvered back and forth in front of this park in clear view of the watchers on shore.
The significance of the battle was two fold, first it made every non-ironclad naval ship in the world obsolete, and second while the Monitor didn’t really defeat the Merrimac it did prevent the Merrimac from breaking the Union blockade. While the Merrimac was technically designed to be an ocean going vessel no one seriously considered her to be a transatlantic ship, her job was to sink the ships blockading the James River. She was not able to perform that mission and for that reason the victory is given to the Monitor.
A point I consider overlooked is that both the Monitor and Merrimac were steam powered ships and did not use sails at all. They could not have effectively manuvered in the confines of Hampton Roads if they had depended upon sails. As it was neither ship had to worry about tacking and could move freely in the dance for position. The Monitor was designed to be a gunboat but the Merrimac was designed to be a ram. For the Merrimac the freedom of movement was critical. I cannot think of another battle before this where both ships had no sails at all. I think this point may be more important that the iorn cladding.
An interesting side note is that the Monitor was ordered not to engage with the Merrimac again. On several ocasion the Merrimac issued forth to challenge the Monitor but the Monitpr retreated to the safety of the big guns at Fort Monroe and Fort Wool.
http://www.civilwarhome.com/ironclad.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hampton_Roads
http://www.klauskramer.de/Schiff/Panzerschiffe/MONITOR&MERRIMAC/MONITOR%20and%20MERRIMAC_engl_top.html Technical information and art concerning construction of the ships.
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/monitor-merrimac.htm This site contains the Harpers Weekly story about the battle.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/AH-MonitorMerrimac.html An eyewitness account of the battle.
Next: See the Mariners Museum exhibit on the Monitor
or
The International Theater for discussion on Ironclads