![]() ![]() When the Yankees invaded the James Peninsula two months after the battle at Hampton Roads, the retreating Confederates scuttled their ironclad. Neither ship was seriously damaged, but the Monitor effectively ended the short reign of terror that the Confederate ironclad had brought to the Union navy.īoth ships met ignominious ends. In the early afternoon, the Virginia pulled back to Norfolk. The cannon balls simply deflected off the iron ships. The ships circled one another, jockeying for position as they fired. The battle between the two vessels began on the morning of March 9 and continued for four hours. Commissioned on February 25, 1862, it arrived at Chesapeake Bay just in time to engage the Virginia. The flat iron deck had a 20-foot cylindrical turret rising from the middle of the ship that housed two 11-inch Dahlgren guns. Designed by Swedish engineer John Ericsson, the vessel had a low profile, rising from the water only 18 inches. ![]() On March 8, the Virginia sunk two Union ships and ran one aground off Hampton Roads. Outfitted with powerful guns, the Virginia was a formidable vessel when the Confederates launched the ship in February 1862. The Confederates captured it and covered it in armor plating above the waterline. Merrimack, a 40-gun frigate launched in 1855. The ships fired on each other all morning but their armor plates deflected the shots, signaling a new era of steam-powered iron ships. Virginia fought to a draw off Hampton Roads, Virginia. On March 9, 1862, one of the most famous naval battles in American history occurred as two ironclads, the U.S.S.Monitor and the C.S.S. Ironclads battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia
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