When the American Civil War broke out on April 12, 1861, southern state militias took over federal armories and forts on their territory.

A week into the war, Virginia militia closed in on the Navy Yard at Gosport (today’s Portsmouth) on the southside of the Hampton Roads waterway. Union forces at the Navy Yard hastily destroyed their depots and set fire to the ships in drydock. They evacuated the Yard on April 20.

Confederate forces entered the next day. Among the wreckage they found the frigate USS Merrimack. It was damaged, but not beyond repair.

They reconfigured the wooden frigate into an ironclad warship. The top decks were removed and replaced with an iron-covered casemate structure with ten guns. the freeboard was also covered with iron plates. An iron ram was installed at the prow.

The ship was commissioned as the CSS Virginia in February 1862. Captain Franklin Buchanan was appointed her commander.

Meanwhile the Union built its own ironclad vessel in New York. The USS Monitor was a unique design with a very low freeboard and a revolving iron turret mounting two 11-inch guns. The ship, built specifically as a response to the Confederate ironclad project, was launched on January 30, 1862.

On March 6 the Monitor departed New York in tow. Her destination: The confluence of the James River and Elizabeth River into Chesapeake Bay, known collectively as Hampton Roads, Virginia. Confederate held Norfolk sat on the southern side of Hampton Roads. The Union held cities of Hampton and Newport News were on the northern side.

The Union Navy had maintained a blockade of Hampton Roads since the war began. On March 8, 1862 the CSS Virginia steamed out to attack the blockading squadron.

That squadron was unprepared for action. Three of the Union ships were at anchor off Fort Monroe. Two more, the frigate USS Congress and the sloop of War Cumberland, lay a few miles to the southwest, in the middle of the James River.

As the Virginia closed to three-quarters of a mile, Congress and Cumberland opened up with 9-inch and 11-inch guns. Their rounds simply bounced off the casemate ship.

The CSS Virginia exchanged a passing broadside with the Congress, then rammed the Cumberland. After exchanging a few close-range volleys with the sinking sloop, Virginia turned on the Congress, setting it on fire.

While the Virginia’s guns, firing at close range, had torn through the wooden ships, the ironclad was virtually undamaged. Only one lucky Union shot had entered an open gun port, silencing one of Virginia’s ten artillery pieces.

Meanwhile the three ships off Fort Monroe had weighed anchor. All soon ran aground. Only nightfall prompted Virginia to return to base without finishing these ships off.

CSS Virginia steamed out early on March 9, intent on finish the previous day’s work. The USS Monitor, commanded by Lt. John Worden, had arrived overnight. As the Virginia approached the first stranded frigate, Worden steamed out to meet her.

The Monitor opened fire at 8:45. Its 165 pound solid round, fired from an 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbore gun, only dented the enemy’s hull.

The Virginia, four times as large as the Monitor, fired back with 72-pound explosive shells. These also had no effect.

For the next three hours the ships sparred at close range. At times their hulls even scraped as they passed one another.

When its guns proved ineffective the Virginia tried to ram the Monitor. The faster, more maneuverable US Navy vessel avoided each charge.

At one point Captain Buchanan even prepared a boarding party. These men were supposed to ram wedges under the Monitor’s revolving turret to limit the Union ship’s field of fire. Worden managed to pull his ship away before the boarders could act.

Finally a shell from the Virginia hit the Monitor’s small forward pilot house. The explosion temporarily blinded Lieutenant Worden. The Monitor withdrew to shallower water, where the larger Virginia could not follow. Worden’s deputy, Lt. Dana Greene, took the pilot house. By the time Monitor steamed out again, the Virginia had decided to go home.

The battle was a draw, but both sides claimed victory. The Union had prevented the CSS Virginia from breaking the blockade. The Confederacy had demonstrated that its technology and navy could hold their own against the Union.

While the Virginia and Monitor were not the first ironclad ships ever built, the Battle of Hampton Roads was the first direct battle between such vessels. Its impact would effect naval warfare for decades to come.

The battle proved that only armored vessels could stand up to other armored warships. Monitors and casemate ships would assume a major role for the rest of the war. Various classes of armored ships would dominate naval warfare through the rest of the Nineteenth Century.