CSS Virginia

CSS Virginia
Career (Confederate States of America)
Ordered:	11 July 1861
Completed:	7 March 1862
Commissioned:	17 February 1862
Fate:	scuttled 11 May 1862
General characteristics
Type:	Casemate ironclad
Displacement:	about 4,000 long tons (4,100 t)
Length:	275 feet (83.8 m)
Beam:	51 feet (15.54 m)
Draft:	21 feet (6.4 m)
Installed power:	1,200 indicated horsepower (890 kW)
Speed:	5–6 kn (9.3–11 km/h; 5.8–6.9 mph)
Complement:	about 320 officers and men
Armament:	2 × 7-inch (178 mm) Brooke rifles 2 × 6.4-inch (160 mm) Brooke rifles 6 × 9-inch (229 mm) Dahlgren smoothbores 2 × 12-pounder (5 kg) howitzers
Armor:	Belt: 1–3 in (25–76 mm) Deck: 1 in (25 mm) Casemate: 4 in (102 mm)

CSS Virginia was a steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War, built as a casemate ironclad using the remains of the scuttled USS Merrimack in 1862. She was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862 opposite the USS Monitor. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between two ironclads.

USS Merrimack becomes CSS Virginia

When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the important federal military bases threatened was Gosport Navy Yard (now Norfolk Naval Shipyard) in Portsmouth, Virginia. Accordingly, the order was sent to destroy the base rather than allow it to fall into Confederate hands. Unfortunately for the Union, the execution of these orders was bungled on 20 April. The steam frigate USS Merrimack sank in shallow water before she completely burned. When the Confederate government took possession of the yard, the base commander, Flag Officer French Forrest, contracted on 18 May to salvage the wreck of the Merrimack. This was completed by 30 May and she was moved into the shipyard's only graving dock where the burned structures were removed.^[1]

The wreck was surveyed and her lower hull and machinery were undamaged so she was selected for conversion into an ironclad by Stephen Mallory, Secretary of the Navy, as she was the only large ship with intact engines available to the Confederacy in the Chesapeake Bay area. Preliminary sketch designs were submitted by Lieutenants John Brooke and John L. Porter, each of which envisaged the ship as a casemate ironclad. Brooke's design showed the ends of the ship as submerged and was selected, although detailed design work would be done by Porter as he was a trained naval constructor. Porter had overall responsibility for the conversion,^[2] but Brooke was responsible for her iron plate and armament while William P. Williamson, Chief Engineer of the Navy, was responsible for the ship's machinery.^[3]

Reconstruction

The burned hull timbers were cut down past the waterline, and a new deck and armored casemate (fortress) were added. The deck was 4-inch (10 cm) thick iron. The casemate was built up of 24 inches (61 cm) of oak and pine in several layers, topped with two 2-inch (5 cm) layers of iron plating oriented perpendicular to each other, and angled to deflect shot hits. The battery consisted of four single-banded Brooke rifles and six 9-inch (23 cm) Dahlgren smoothbore shell guns. Two of the rifles, bow and stern pivots, were 7-inch (18 cm), of 14,500 pounds; the other two were 6.4-inch (16 cm) (32 pound calibre) of 9000 pounds, one on each broadside. The 9-inch (23 cm) gun on each side nearest the furnaces was fitted for firing hot shot. A few 9-inch (23 cm) shot with extra windage (slightly smaller diameter) were cast for hot shot. No other solid shot were on board during the fight.

As Virginia’s designers had heard of plans by the North to build an ironclad, and figuring her guns would be unable to harm such a ship, they equipped her with a ram— at that time an anachronism in a warship.^[4] Merrimack's steam engines, now part of Virginia, were in poor working order (the ship had been slated for an engine rebuild prior to the decision to abandon the Norfolk naval yard), and the salty Elizabeth River water and addition of tons of iron armor and ballast did not improve the situation. As completed CSS Virginia had a turning radius of about one mile (1.6 km) and required 45 minutes to complete a full circle, which was a major handicap in its battle with the far more nimble USS Monitor.^[5]

The commanding officer, Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, arrived to take command only a few days before sailing. The ship was placed in commission and equipped by the executive officer, Catesby ap R. Jones.

Battle of Hampton Roads

The Battle of Hampton Roads began on March 8, 1862 when Virginia sortied. Despite an all-out effort to complete her, the ship still had workmen on board when she sailed. Supported by Raleigh and Beaufort, and accompanied by Patrick Henry, Jamestown, and Teaser, Virginia took on the blockading fleet.

The first ship engaged, the wooden sail-powered USS Cumberland, was sunk after being rammed. However, in sinking, Cumberland broke off Virginia's ram. Seeing what happened to Cumberland, the captain of USS Congress ordered his ship grounded in shallow water. Congress and Virginia traded fire for an hour, after which the badly-damaged Congress surrendered. While the surviving crewmen of Congress were being ferried off the ship, a Union battery on the north shore opened fire on Virginia. In retaliation, the captain of Virginia ordered to fire upon the surrendered Congress with red-hot shot, to set her ablaze.

Virginia did not emerge from the battle unscathed. Shot from Cumberland, Congress, and the shore-based Union troops had riddled her smokestack, reducing her already low speed. Two of her guns were out of order, and a number of armor plates had been loosened. Even so, her captain attacked USS Minnesota, which had run aground on a sandbank trying to escape Virginia. However, because of her deep draft, Virginia was unable to do significant damage. It being late in the day, Virginia left with the expectation of returning the next day and completing the destruction of the Union blockaders.

Later that night, USS Monitor arrived at Union-held Fort Monroe, rushed to Hampton Roads in hopes of protecting the Union force and preventing Virginia from threatening Union cities.

The next day, on March 9, 1862, the world's first battle between ironclads took place. The smaller, nimbler Monitor was able to outmaneuver Virginia, but neither ship proved able to do significant damage, despite numerous hits. Monitor was much closer to the water, and thus much harder to hit by the Virginia's guns, but vulnerable to ramming and boarding. Finally, Monitor retreated. This was because the captain of the Monitor was hit by gunpowder in his eyes while looking through the pilothouse's peepholes, which caused Monitor to haul off. The Monitor had retreated off into the shoals and remained there, and so the battle was a draw. The captain of Virginia, Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones, CSN received the advice from his pilots to take the midnight high tide to depart back over the bar toward the CS Navy base at Norfolk until noon of the next day. Lieutenant Jones wanted, instead, to re-attack, but to "turn the ship and fight the starboard gun, was impossible, for heading up stream on a strong flood-tide, she would have been wholly unmanageable." The pilots emphasized that the Virginia had "nearly three miles to run to the bar" and that she could not remain and "take the ground on a falling tide." So to prevent getting stuck, Lieutenant Jones called off the battle and moved back toward harbor.^[6] After the battle with the Monitor, the Virginia retired to the Gosport Naval Yard at Portsmouth, Viriginia for repairs and remained in drydock until April 4, 1862.

In the following month, the crew of the Virginia were unsuccessful in their attempts to break the Union blockade. The blockade had been bolstered by the hastily ram-fitted SS Vanderbilt,^[7] and SS Illinois as well as the SS Arago and USS Minnesota which had been repaired. The Virginia made several sorties back over to Hampton Roads hoping to draw Monitor into battle. Monitor, however, was under orders not to engage.

On April 11, the Confederate Navy sent Lieutenant Joseph Nicholson Barney in command of the side-paddle CSS Jamestown, along with the Virginia and five other ships in full view of the Union squadron, enticing them to fight.^[8] When it became clear that the US Navy ships were unwilling to fight, the CS Navy squadron moved in and captured three merchant ships, the brigs Marcus and Sabout and the schooner Catherine T. Dix. Their flags were then hoisted "Union-side down" to further taunt the US Navy into a fight, as they were towed back to Norfolk, with the help of the CSS Raleigh.

Neither ironclad was ever to fight again. By late April the new Union ironclads USS Naugatuck/USRC E. A. Stevens and USS Galena had also joined the blockade. On May 8, 1862, Virginia and the James River Squadron ventured out when the Union ships began shelling the Confererate fortifications near Norfolk but the Union ships retired under the shore batteries on the north side of the James River and on Rip Raps island.

On May 10, 1862, advancing Union troops occupied Norfolk. Since Virginia was a steam-powered battery and not a cruiser, she was not seaworthy enough to enter the ocean even if she was able to pass the Union blockade. Virginia was also unable to retreat further up the James River due to her deep 22-foot (6.7 m) draft. In an attempt to reduce her draft, supplies and coal were dumped overboard but this exposed the unclad, wooden hull. Without a home port, Virginia was ordered blown up to keep her from being captured. This task fell to Lieutenant Jones, the last man to leave CSS Virginia after all of her guns had been safely removed and carried to the CS Marine Corps base and fortifications at Drewy's Bluff to fight again. Early on the morning of May 11, 1862, off Craney Island, fire reached her magazine and she was destroyed by a great explosion.

The USS Monitor was lost on December 31 of the same year, when the vessel was swamped in a storm while under tow off Cape Hatteras North Carolina.

Historical names: Merrimack, Virginia, Merrimac

The name of the warship which served the Confederacy in the Battle of Hampton Roads has become a source of confusion, which continues to the present day.

When she was first commissioned into the United States Navy in 1856, her name was Merrimack, with the K. The name derived from the Merrimack River near where she was built. She was the second ship of the U.S. Navy to be named for the Merrimack River, which is formed by the junction of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee Rivers at Franklin, New Hampshire. The Merrimack flows south across New Hampshire, and then eastward across northeastern Massachusetts before emptying in the Atlantic at Newburyport, Massachusetts.

The Confederacy bestowed the name Virginia on her when she was raised, restored, and outfitted as an ironclad warship, but the Union preferred to call the Confederate ironclad warship by either its earlier name, "Merrimack", or by the nickname, "The Rebel Monster".

Perhaps because the Union won the Civil War, the history of the United States generally records the Union version. In the aftermath of the battle, the names Virginia and Merrimack were used equally by both sides, as attested by the newspapers and correspondence of the day. Some Navy reports and pre-1900 historians misspelled the name as "Merrimac," which is actually an unrelated ship.^[9] Hence "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac". Both spellings are still in use in the Hampton Roads area.

Memorial, heritage

• It is said the most popular exhibit at Jamestown Exposition held in 1907 at Sewell's Point was the "Battle of the Merrimac and Monitor," a diorama that was in a special building.^{[citation needed]}
• The small community in Montgomery County, Virginia near where the coal burned by the Confederate ironclad was mined is now known as Merrimac, Virginia.
• The October 8, 1867 issue of the Norfolk Virginian newspaper carried a prominent classified advertisement in the paper's "Private Sales" section for the salvaged iron ram of the CSS Virginia. The ad states verbatim "A RELIC OF WAR FOR SALE: The undersigned has had several offers for the IRON PROW! of the first iron-clad ever built, the celebrated Ram and Iron Clad Virginia, formerly the Merrimac. This immense RELIC WEIGHS 1,340 POUNDS, wrought iron, and as a sovereign of the war, and an object of interest as a revolution in naval warefare, would suit a Museum, State Institute, or some great public resort. Those desiring to purchase will please address D. A. UNDERDOWN, Wrecker, care of Virginian Office, Norfolk, Va." It is unclear from the above whether this was the first iron ram that broke off and lodged in the starboard bow of the sinking USS Cumberland during the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads or was the second iron ram afixed to Virginia's bow at the time she was scuttled to avoid capture by Union forces.
• Other pieces of Virginia did survive and are on display at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News and the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, where one of her anchors has resided on its front lawn for many years.
• In 1907, an armor plate from the ship was melted down and used in the casting of the Pokahuntas Bell for the Jamestown Exposition.^[10]

• Starting in roughly 1883, numerous souvenirs, made from recently salvaged iron and wood raised from Virginia's sunken hulk, found a ready and willing market among eastern seaboard residents who remembered the historic first battle between ironclads. Various tokens, medals, medalets, sectional watch fobs, and other similar metal keepsakes are known to have been struck by private mints in limited quantities. Known examples still exist today, being held in both public and private collections, rarely coming up for public auction. Nine examples made from Virginia's iron and copper can be found catalogued in great detail, with front and back photos, in David Schenkman's 1979 numismatic booklet listed in the Reference section (below).
• The name of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, built in Hampton Roads in the general vicinity of the famous engagement, with both Virginia and federal funds, also reflects the more recent version.

See also

• Norfolk Naval Shipyard
• USS Merrimack (1855)

Notes

References

• Egan, Robert S. (2005). "Thoughts and Speculation on the Conversion of USS Merrimack into CSS Virginia". Warship International (Toledo, OH: International Naval Research Organization) XLII (4): 362–414. ISSN 0043-0374.
• Gardiner, Robert, ed (1979). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905. Greenwich: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-8317-0302-4.
• Konstam, Angus (2003). Duel of the Ironclads: USS Monitor & CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads 1862. Oxford, England: Osprey. ISBN 1-84176-721-2.
• Potter, E. B., editor, Sea Power: A Naval Tradition, 2nd Edition, Annapolis, Maryland, U. S. Naval Institute Press, 1981. ISBN 0-87021-607-4.
• Quarstein, John V. (2006). "Sink Before Surrender: The Story of the CSS Virginia". In Holzer, Harold and Mulligan, Tim. The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2481-3.
• Schenkman, David, Tokens & Medals Commemorating the Battle Between the Monitor and Merrimac (sic), Hampton, Virginia, 28-page booklet (the second in a series of Special Articles on the Numismatics of The Commonwealth of Virginia), Virginia Numismatic Association, 1979. No ISSN or ISBN.
• Symonds, Craig L. (2006). "Building the Ironclads". In Holzer, Harold and Mulligan, Tim. The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2481-3.

Further reading

• deKay, James, Monitor, Ballantine Books, New York, New York, 1997.
• Besse, Sumner B., C. S. Iroclad Virginia and U. S. Ironclad Monitor, Newport News, Virginia, The Mariner's Museum, 1978. ISBN 0-917376-32-3.
• Nelson, James L., The Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack. New York, NY, HarperCollins Publishers, 2004. ISBN 0-06-052403-0.
• Park, Carl D., Ironclad Down, USS Merrimack-CSS Virginia, From Construction to Destruction, Annapolis Maryland, U. S. Naval Institute Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59114-659-9.
• Smith, Gene A., Iron and Heavy Guns, Duel Between the Monitor and Merrimac (sic), Abeline, Texas, McWhiney Foundation Press, 1998. ISBN 1-866661-15-4.
• Thomas, Campbell R., and Flanders, Alan B., Confederate Phoenix, The CSS Virginia, Burd Street Press, 2001. ISBN 978-1572492011.

External links

• Library of Virginia official website
• Virginia Historical Society official website
• Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA official website
• website devoted to the CSS Virginia
• Hampton Roads Visitor Guide
• USS Monitor Center and Exhibit Newport News, Virginia
• Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Virginia
• Hampton Roads Naval Museum
• Civil War Naval History
• Fort Wool History
• Roads to the Future - I-664 Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel

Coordinates: 36°54′25″N 76°20′37″W / 36.90694°N 76.34361°W