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CSS Virginia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Career |   |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | 1861 |
| Laid down: | 1862 (overlay USS Merrimack) |
| Launched: | March 8, 1862 |
| Commissioned: | 1862 |
| Status: | scuttled by crew, May 11, 1862 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | approx. 3200 tons (the data differ, 800 tons is unlikely) |
| Length: | 275 ft (84 m) |
| Beam: | 38.6 ft (11.8 m) |
| Draft: | 22 ft (6.7 m) |
| Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h) |
| Complement: | 320 officers and men |
| Armament: | two 7 in (178 mm) rifles two 6 in (152 mm) rifles six 9 in (229 mm) Dahlgren smoothbores two 12-pounder (5 kg) howitzers |
| Armor: | Iron |
CSS Virginia was an ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War (built using the remains of the scuttled USS Merrimack).
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.
Prior to then, nearly all warships were made primarily of wood. Afterwards, the design of ships and the nature of naval warfare changed dramatically.
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When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the important federal military bases threatened was Gosport Shipyard (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, these orders were bungled. The steam frigate USS Merrimack sank before she completely burned. When the Confederates entered the yard, they raised Merrimack and decided to use the engines and hull to build an ironclad ram.
Rebuilt under the supervision of Captain French Forrest, commanding Gosport, the new ship was named Virginia. She had four inch (102 mm)-thick iron deck and casement and ten guns, one in the bow, one astern, four on each beam. Further, Virginia’s designers had heard of plans by the North to build an ironclad. Figuring her guns would be unable to harm such a ship, and to conserve gunpowder, they equipped her with a ram—the first ship so-equipped in over a thousand years[1]. Merrimack's engines, now part of Virginia, had not been in good working order, and the salty Elizabeth River water and addition of tons of iron did not improve the situation.
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, 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 Congress fired upon with red-hot shot, to set her ablaze.
Virginia did not emerge from the battle unscathed. Shot from Cumberland, Congress, and 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 so much harder to hit by the Virginia's guns, but vulnerable to ramming and boarding. Finally, Monitor retreated leaving Virginia in possession of the "battlefield."[citation needed] This was due to the fact that the captain of the Monitor was hit by gunpowder in his eyes which caused Monitor to haul off and the captain of Virginia, Catesby ap Roger Jones, thought it best to do the same and tend to any damages. The Union blockade remained.
During the next two months, Virginia made several sorties to Hampton Roads hoping to draw Monitor into battle. Monitor, however, was under orders not to engage. Neither ironclad was ever to fight again.
Finally on May 10, 1862, advancing Union troops occupied Norfolk. Virginia was unable to retreat further up the James River due to her deep draft, nor was she seaworthy enough to enter the ocean. Without a home port, Virginia was ordered blown up to keep her from being captured. This task fell to ap Roger Jones, the last man to leave CSS Virginia after all of her guns had been safely removed and carried to 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 name of the warship which served the Confederacy in the famous 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, her name was Merrimac, without the K. The Confederacy bestowed the name Virginia on her when she was raised, restored, and outfitted as an ironclad warship. In the aftermath of the battle, the names Virginia and Merrimac were used equally by both sides, as attested by the newspapers and correspondence of the day. It was in the years following the Civil War that historians added the K to Merrimac, in recognition of the river for which the ship was named, which continued in use to this day.
- 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 which was in a special building.
- The small community in Montgomery County, Virginia near where the iron for the Confederate ironclad was forged is now known as Merrimac, Virginia.
- Some of the iron mined at Merrimac, Virginia and used in the plating on the Confederate ironclad is displayed at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia.
- Other pieces of Virginia are on display at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News and the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, where the anchor has resided on the front lawn for many years.
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.
Should periodic modern efforts to recover more of the Confederate vessel from the depths of Hampton Roads prove successful, it is unclear what name will be applied to the remains.
- ^ deKay, James, "Monitor", p. 131, Ballantine Books, 1997
Military Heritage did a feature on the Merrimack (CSS Virginia), USS Monitor, and the Battle at Hampton Roads (Keith Milton, Military Heritage, December 2001, Volume 3, No. 3, pp.38 to 45 and p. 97).
- 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
| Ironclads of the Confederate States Navy |
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List of ships of the Confederate States Navy |