Which ship won the Civil War naval battle between the Monitor and Merrimack?

March 9, 1862 the battle known as Hampton Roads took place when the first ironclads fought. The South's Virginia, was a conventional wood hull that had been the northern ship Merrimack. The ship was steam powered and had a steel super structure built on the wood hull. The North's Monitor was a revolutionary design being flat on the water with only a revolving gun turret sticking up.

The South built the Virginia (Merrimack) to break the blockade that the North was using against southern ports. The day before the ironclads fought, the Virginia attacked the blockade's wooden battleships, easily sinking two, and damaging a third. On the 9th of March the Virginia attacked the blockade again but the Monitor was waiting and blocked the attack. Neither ship could sink the other even though they circled each other firing at point blank range. History will record that this battle of Ironclads caused the world powers to begin building steel battleships.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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10 Comments

LevibatteryCSA (Dave)

I almost built a C.S.S. Virginia, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped me from making it, due to the fact I was going to use it on the Great Lakes at Reenactments, Canada borders the U.S. and if the ship, broke free and ended up in Canadian waters, could be declared an act of War. Our Treaty with Canada is from the War of 1812.

stlmark

Richard G Schwartz, Strategically, it was a Union victory, because the Merrimack failed to perform its primary mission (see above), which was to break the Union blockade.

stlmark

L Lh Adams, I was told a different story. When the Merrimack tried to ram the Monitor, the union ship's pointed end punched a hole in the Merrimack's side & produced a serious leak. The Monitor also shot off the Merrimack's smokestack & caused smoke to enter the ship's interior. The Merrimack withdrew when it was unable to perform its primary mission, which was to sink the Union's wooden warships. When the Merrimack's captain asked his gunnery officer why he was no longer firing at the Monitor, he replied, "Because, sir, I find that I can do as much damage to her by snapping my fingers at her once every two and a half minutes."