Throughout parts of the
Civil War and nearly all of the preceding American
wars, wooden ships dominated the
naval fronts. In the early Civil War, such wooden
steam frigates played the main role in blockading
Southern ports. Without a safe way to disable the
Union blockade, the
Confederates found themselves short on needed supplies.
Thus the notion for the first Ironclad ship emerged. The Confederate plan was to convert a captured Union ship, the
U.S.S. Merrimack, into a stronger ship by covering its exterior with metal plates. The advantages of this ship, aptly referred to as an ironclad, included a resistance to
fire and an obvious ability to
ram wooden ships with smaller risk to itself. However the Merrimack, now dubbed the
C.S.S. Virginia, was too
bulky and too
slow to deal with a more agile ship with the same iron coating- which is precisely what the Union set out to build after spies reported the first processes for the conversion of the Merrimack.
John Ericsson, a Union supporter although he was hardly on polite terms with the highest ranking Union officers, had formed a
radical plan for a competing ironclad ship. Drawing more comparisons with a "
cheesebox on a raft" than with an actual ship, the design Ericsson proffered was so strange looking that the committee examining the plan did not believe it could ever
float. The planned ship was smaller than the C.S.S. Virginia, and had only two
rotating guns to the Virginia’s ten
stationary ones.
Regardless, Ericsson’s design was accepted- though reluctantly- by the Union
navy. They were put in to affect to produce the U.S.S. Monitor. This new ironclad was more agile and mobile than the Virginia, able to reach speeds of
eight knots to the Virginia’s maximum speeds of
five knots.
Entirely oblivious to the Union’s construction of the U.S.S. Monitor, the Confederates had put the final touches on their own C.S.S. Virginia. On March 8, 1862, after months of anticipation, the Virginia was launched from its
Norfolk port. The Confederate watchers cheered vigorously, confident that they now had the
ultimate naval weapon with which to disarm the wooden Union fleet and destroy the blockades.
Unbeknownst to the spirited Confederates, however, the Union had already launched their own ironclad on January 30, 1862. This was a full two weeks before the Virginia had set out from its port.
When the Virginia launched, everyone watching assumed it was merely for a test run. Yet this test would prove to be most
strenuous for the ship’s weapons, for not long after its launch the Virginia encountered two heavily armed wooden frigates. These Union ships, the
U.S.S. Cumberland and the
U.S.S. Congress, pelted the Virginia with
shells, but the
assault seemed to have no affect on the still approaching ironclad. Both of the attackers were destroyed, and the three Union ships hurrying to the rescue would have met similar
destruction had not their captains given orders to turn and flee.
The
triumphant Virginia was thought of as the new
superweapon of the south. Yet the Union hoped they had a powerful counter weapon, able to sink the terrifying Virginia, in the Monitor. The Monitor was set on its journey to engage the Virginia at
Hampton Roads, where the Virginia waited.
On March 9, 1862, the two ironclads met in battle. Their fighting lasted for four hours. It seemed that the Virginia would have an easy victory, having proven its amazing
firepower in previous engagements. Yet the Monitor was an
agile ship, and was able to avoid the Virginia’s blasts while landing none of its own on the Virginia. Neither one seemed to be able to pull an advantage in the battle, as
cannonballs simply bounced off the iron coatings of both ships and the shells seemed to have little efffect. Thus the battle ended in a
draw- although predictably each side claimed that the victory had been theirs.
Perhaps the true victor of this battle was the
technology behind the new ironclad ships. Following the Civil War,
wooden war ships were finished. They were too easily defeated by their ironclad cousins. In wars to follow, the model for the ironclads would be
perfected, and put into widespread use.
This write up also appears at http://www.geocities.com/warfacts/ as part of a study on the Civil War that I maintain.