 CSSVirginia | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Confederate States | |
| Name | CSSVirginia |
| Namesake | Virginia |
| Ordered | July 11, 1861 |
| Completed | March 7, 1862 |
| Commissioned | February 17, 1862 |
| Nickname(s) | The Rebel Monster |
| Fate | Scuttled May 11, 1862(36°54′25″N76°20′37″W / 36.90694°N 76.34361°W /36.90694; -76.34361) |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Casemate ironclad |
| Displacement | about 4,000 long tons (4,100 t) |
| Length | 275 ft (83.8 m) |
| Beam | 51 ft 2 in (15.6 m) |
| Draft | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Installed power | 1,200 ihp (890 kW) |
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 5–6knots (9.3–11.1 km/h; 5.8–6.9 mph) |
| Complement | about 320 officers and men |
| Armament |
|
| Armor | |
CSSVirginia was the first steam-poweredironclad warship built by theConfederate States Navy during the first year of theAmerican Civil War; she was constructed as acasemate ironclad using therazéed (cut down) original lower hull and engines of thescuttledsteam frigateUSS Merrimack.Virginia was one of the participants in theBattle of Hampton Roads, opposing theUnion'sUSS Monitor in March 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle betweenironclads.
When the Commonwealth ofVirginia seceded from theUnion in 1861, one of the important US military bases threatened was Gosport Navy Yard (nowNorfolk Naval Shipyard) inPortsmouth, Virginia. Accordingly, orders were sent to destroy the base rather than allow it to fall intoConfederate hands. On the afternoon of 17 April, the dayVirginia seceded, Engineer in ChiefB. F. Isherwood managed to get the frigate's engines lit. However, the previous night secessionists had sunk light boats betweenCraney Island andSewell's Point, blocking the channel. On 20 April, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U. S. Navy burnedMerrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture.[1] When the Confederate government took possession of the fully provisioned yard,[2] the base's new commander,Flag OfficerFrench Forrest, contracted on May 18 tosalvage the wreck of the frigate. This was completed by May 30, and she was towed into the shipyard's onlydry dock (today known asDrydock Number One), where the burned structures were removed.[3]
The wreck was surveyed and her lower hull and machinery were discovered to be undamaged.Stephen Mallory,Secretary of the Navy decided to convertMerrimack into anironclad, since she was the only large ship with intact engines available in theChesapeake Bay area. Preliminary sketch designs were submitted byLieutenantsJohn Mercer Brooke andJohn L. Porter, each of whom envisaged the ship as a casemate ironclad. Brooke's general design showed the bow and stern portions submerged, and his design was the one finally selected. The detailed design work would be completed by Porter, who was a trainednaval constructor.Porter had overall responsibility for the conversion,[4] but Brooke was responsible for her iron plate and heavy ordnance, while William P. Williamson, Chief Engineer of the Navy, was responsible for the ship's machinery.[5]
The hull's burned timbers were cut down past the vessel's original waterline, leaving just enough clearance to accommodate her large, twin-bladedscrew propeller. A newfantail and armored casemate were built atop a new main deck, and a v-shapedbreakwater (bulwark) was added to her bow, which attached to the armored casemate. This forward and aft main deck and fantail were designed to stay submerged and were covered in 4-inch-thick (10 cm) iron plate, built up in two layers. The casemate was built of 24 inches (61 cm) of oak and pine in several layers, topped with two 2-inch (51 mm) layers of iron plating oriented perpendicular to each other, and angled at 36 degrees from horizontal to deflect fired enemy shells.
From reports in Northern newspapers,Virginia's designers were aware of the Union plans to build an ironclad and assumed their similar ordnance would be unable to do much serious damage to such a ship. It was decided to equip their ironclad with aram, an anachronism on a 19th-century warship.[6]Merrimack's steam engines, now part ofVirginia, were in poor working order; they had been slated for replacement when the decision was made to abandon the Norfolk naval yard. The saltyElizabeth River water and the addition of tons of iron armor andpig iron ballast, added to the hull's unused spaces for needed stability after her initial refloat, and to submerge her unarmored lower levels, only added to her engines' propulsion issues. As completed,Virginia had a turning radius of about 1 mile (1.6 km) and required 45 minutes to complete a full circle, which would later prove to be a major handicap in battle with the far more nimbleMonitor.[7]
The ironclad's casemate had 14gun ports, three each in the bow and stern, one firing directly along the ship's centerline, the two others angled at 45° from the center line; these six bow and stern gun ports had exterior iron shutters installed to protect their cannon. There were four gun ports on eachbroadside; their protective iron shutters remained uninstalled during both days of theBattle of Hampton Roads.Virginia's battery consisted of fourmuzzle-loading single-bandedBrooke rifles and sixsmoothbore 9-inch (229 mm)Dahlgren guns salvaged from the oldMerrimack. Two of the rifles, the bow and sternpivot guns, were 7-inch (178 mm)caliber and weighed 14,500 pounds (6,600 kg) each. They fired a 104-pound (47 kg)shell. The other two were 6.4-inch (163 mm) cannon of about 9,100 pounds (4,100 kg),[8] one on each broadside. The 9-inch Dahlgrens were mounted three to a side; each weighed approximately 9,200 pounds (4,200 kg) and could fire a 72.5-pound (32.9 kg) shell up to a range of 3,357 yards (3,070 m) (or 1.9 miles) at an elevation of 15°.[9] Both amidship Dahlgrens nearest the boiler furnaces were fitted-out to fireheated shot. On her upper casemate deck were positioned two anti-boarding/personnel12-pounderHowitzers.
Virginia's commanding officer,Flag OfficerFranklin Buchanan, arrived to take command only a few days before her first sortie; the ironclad was placed in commission and equipped by herexecutive officer,LieutenantCatesby ap Roger Jones.
The Battle of Hampton Roads began on March 8, 1862, whenVirginia engaged the blockading Union fleet. Despite an all-out effort to complete her, the new ironclad still had workmen on board when she sailed into Hampton Roads with herflotilla of fiveCSN support ships:Raleigh (serving asVirginia's tender) andBeaufort,Patrick Henry,Jamestown, andTeaser.
The first Union ship to be engaged byVirginia was the all-wood, sail-poweredUSS Cumberland, which was first crippled during a furious cannon exchange, and then rammed in her forward starboard bow byVirginia. AsCumberland began to sink, the port side half ofVirginia's iron ram was broken off, causing a bow leak in the ironclad. Seeing what had happened toCumberland, the captain ofUSS Congress ordered his frigate into shallower water, where she soon grounded.Congress andVirginia traded cannon fire for an hour, after which the badly-damagedCongress finally surrendered. While the surviving crewmen ofCongress were being ferried off the ship, a Union battery on the north shore opened fire onVirginia. Outraged at such a breach of war protocol, in retaliationVirginia's now angry captain,Commodore Franklin Buchanan, gave the order to open fire withhot-shot on the surrenderedCongress as he rushed toVirginia's exposed upper casemate deck, where he was injured by enemy rifle fire.Congress, now set ablaze by the retaliatory shelling, burned for many hours into the night, a symbol of Confederate naval power and a costly wake-up call for the all-wood Union blockading squadron.
Virginia did not emerge from the battle unscathed, however. Her hanging port side anchor was lost after rammingCumberland; the bow was leaking from the loss of the ram's port side half; shot fromCumberland,Congress, and the shore-based Union batteries had riddled her smokestack, reducing her boilers' draft and already slow speed; two of her broadside cannon (without shutters) were put out of commission by shell hits; a number of her armor plates had been loosened; both ofVirginia's 22-foot (6.7 m)cutters had been shot away, as had both 12-pounder anti-boarding/anti-personnel howitzers, most of the deckstanchions,railings, and both flagstaffs. Even so, the now-injured Buchanan ordered an attack onUSS Minnesota, which had run aground on a sandbar trying to escapeVirginia. However, because of the ironclad's 22-foot (6.7 m)draft (fully loaded), she was unable to get close enough to do any significant damage. It being late in the day,Virginia retired from the conflict with the expectation of returning the next day and completing the destruction of the remaining Union blockaders.
Later that night,USS Monitor arrived at Union-heldFort Monroe. She had been rushed toHampton Roads, still not quite complete, all the way from theBrooklyn Navy Yard, in hopes of defending the force of wooden ships and preventing "the rebel monster" from further threatening the Union's blockading fleet and nearby cities, likeWashington, D.C. While under tow, she nearlyfoundered twice during heavy storms on her voyage south, arriving in Hampton Roads by the bright firelight from the still-burning triumph ofVirginia's first day of handiwork.
The next day, on March 9, 1862, the world's first battle between ironclads took place. The smaller, nimbler, and fasterMonitor was able to outmaneuver the larger, slowerVirginia, but neither ship proved able to do any severe damage to the other, despite numerous shell hits by both combatants, many fired at virtually point-blank range.Monitor had a much lower freeboard and only its single, rotating, two-cannon gun turret and forwardpilothouse sitting above her deck, and thus was much harder to hit withVirginia's heavy cannon. After hours of shell exchanges,Monitor finally retreated into shallower water after a direct shell hit to her armored pilothouse forced her away from the conflict to assess the damage. The captain of theMonitor, LieutenantJohn L. Worden, had taken a direct gunpowder explosion to his face and eyes, blinding him, while looking through the pilothouse's narrow, horizontal viewing slits.Monitor remained in the shallows, but as it was late in the day,Virginia steamed for her home port, the battle ending without a clear victor. The captain ofVirginia that day, LieutenantCatesby ap Roger Jones, received advice from his pilots to depart over the sandbar toward Norfolk until the next day. Lieutenant Jones wanted to continue the fight, but the pilots emphasized that theVirginia had "nearly three miles to run to the bar" and that she could not remain and "take the ground on a falling tide." To prevent running aground, Lieutenant Jones reluctantly moved the ironclad back toward port.[10]Virginia retired to the Gosport Naval Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, and remained in drydock for repairs until April 4, 1862.
In the following month, the crew ofVirginia were unsuccessful in their attempts to break the Union blockade. The blockade had been bolstered by the hastily ram-fitted paddle steamerUSS Vanderbilt,[11] and SSIllinois as well as theSS Arago andUSS Minnesota, which had been repaired.Virginia made several sorties back over to Hampton Roads hoping to drawMonitor into battle.Monitor, however, was under strict orders not to re-engage; the two combatants would never battle again.
On April 11, the Confederate Navy sent LieutenantJoseph Nicholson Barney, in command of the paddle side-wheelerCSS Jamestown, along withVirginia and five other ships in full view of the Union squadron, enticing them to fight.[12] When it became clear that Union Navy ships were unwilling to fight, theCS Navy squadron moved in and captured three merchant ships, the brigsMarcus andSabout and the schoonerCatherine T. Dix. Their ensigns were then hoisted "Union-side down" to further taunt the Union Navy into a fight, as they were towed back to Norfolk, with the help ofCSS Raleigh.
By late April, the new Union ironcladsUSRCE. A. Stevens andUSS Galena had also joined the blockade. On May 8, 1862,Virginia and theJames River Squadron ventured out when the Union ships began shelling the Confederate fortifications near Norfolk, but the Union ships retired under the shore batteries on the north side of the James River and onRip Raps island.
On May 10, 1862, advancing Union troops occupiedNorfolk. SinceVirginia was now a steam-powered heavy battery and no longer an ocean-going cruiser, her pilots judged her not seaworthy enough to enter the Atlantic, even if she were able to pass the Union blockade.Virginia was also unable to retreat further up theJames River due to her deep 22-foot (6.7 m) draft (fully loaded). In an attempt to reduce it, supplies and coal were dumped overboard, even though this exposed the ironclad's unarmored lower hull, but this was still not enough to make a difference. Without a home port and no place to go,Virginia's new captain,flag officerJosiah Tattnall III, reluctantly ordered her destruction in order to keep the ironclad from being captured. The ship was destroyed by Catesby Jones and John Taylor Wood, who set fire to scattered gunpowder and cotton strewn across the ship's deck. Early on the morning of May 11, 1862, off Craney Island, the fire reached the ironclad's magazine, leading to a massive explosion that obliterated the ship. What remained ofVirginia then sank to the harbor floor.[13]
After the war, the government determined that the wreck ofVirginia needed to be removed from the channel. In 1867, Captain D. A. Underdown salvaged 290,000 pounds of iron from the site, much of which was taken from the ship's ram and cannons. The following year, Underdown detonated explosives under theVirginia's hulk to fully clear the river, but the attempt did not totally remove the wreck. In 1871, E.J. Griffith recovered an additional 102,883 pounds of iron from the seabed, and in 1876, the "remaining timbers" of the ship were raised.[14] In 1982, theNational Underwater and Marine Agency explored the area around Craney Island and found that "there are no large areas of either concentrated or scattered debris associated with the Virginia lying on the river bottom within the survey area."[15]
Most of the recovered iron was melted down and sold for scrap (notably, some of the ship's iron was used to craftPokahuntas Bell in 1907).[14][16] Other pieces of the ship have been preserved in museums: The ship's brass bell is held at theHampton Roads Naval Museum,[17] and one of theVirginia's anchors now rests in front of theAmerican Civil War Museum inRichmond.[18] Numerous souvenirs, ostensibly made from salvaged iron and wood raised fromVirginia's sunken hulk, have found a ready and willing market among Civil War enthusiasts andeastern seaboard residents. However, theprovenance of many of these artifacts is impossible to prove, which has given rise to the humorousadage that "if you took all the iron and all the wood supposedly collected from the [wreck of the CSSVirginia], you'd have enough to outfit a fleet of ironclads."[18]
Although the Confederacy renamed the ship, she is still frequently referred to by her Union name. When she was first commissioned into the United States Navy in 1856, her name wasMerrimack, with theK; the name was derived from theMerrimack 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 theconfluence of thePemigewasset andWinnipesaukee rivers atFranklin, New Hampshire. The Merrimack flows south acrossNew Hampshire, then eastward across northeasternMassachusetts before finally emptying in theAtlantic atNewburyport, Massachusetts.
After raising, restoring, and outfitting as an ironclad warship, the Confederacy bestowed on her the nameVirginia. Nonetheless, the Union continued to refer to the Confederate ironclad by either its original name,Merrimack, or by the nickname "The Rebel Monster". In the aftermath of the Battle of Hampton Roads, the namesVirginia andMerrimack were used interchangeably by both sides, as attested to by various newspapers and correspondence of the day. Navy reports and pre-1900 historians frequently misspelled the name as "Merrimac", which was actually an unrelated ship,[19] hence "the Battle of theMonitor and theMerrimac". Both spellings are still in use in the Hampton Roads area.
The Government vessels had been scuttled in the afternoon before thePawnee arrived, to prevent their being seized by the Secessionists… The following are the names of the vessels which were destroyed:Pennsylvania, 74 gun-ship; steam-frigateMerrimac, 44 guns; sloop-of-warGermantown, 22 guns; sloopPlymouth, 22 guns; frigateRaritan, 45 guns; frigateColumbia, 44 guns;Delaware, 74 gun-ship;Columbus, 74 gun-ship;United States, in ordinary; brigDolphin, 8 guns; and the powder-boat… [plus] line-of-battle shipNew-York, on the stocks… Large quantities of provisions, cordage and machinery were also destroyed — besides buildings of great value — but it is not positively known that the[dry] dock was blown up.
The Union's naval infrastructure was dealt a crippling blow on April 20, 1861, when the ill-conceived and botched evacuation of theNorfolk Naval Shipyard at Gosport, Virginia led to the Confederate capture of over 1000 naval guns, irreplaceable dry dock, and repair facilities.
