by David O'Donnell

Created on: April 15, 2008

The Civil War was probably the first truly modern conflict in history because of the new technologies that were used which revolutionized warfare and changed the face of battle forever. One of the most important developments in the period 1861-1865 was the use of ironclad ships by the navies of the Union and the Confederacy that spelled the beginning of the end for wooden hulled warships that were the mainstay of all navies at the time. The ironclad of the Civil War was the direct ancestor of the battleship, which during the twentieth century was the most formidable weapon known to humanity until it was finally eclipsed by the aircraft carrier and the atomic bomb in World War Two.

When the Union navy abandoned their base at Norfolk Virginia early in the war they left behind the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack. Unfortunately for the Federals Southern ingenuity transformed this wreck into a fearsome offensive weapon. The Confederates clad the wooden ship with armor plate and fitted it with a variety of guns as well as attaching a steel ram to its stern. It was hoped that this craft would destroy the Union naval blockade of Norfolk and on the morning of March 8 1862 the Merrimack attacked the wooden ships of the US Navy with considerable success. It was wash day for the Union fleet anchored at Hampton Roads and attire festooned the rigging of the Yankee ships and the crews were caught completely off guard by the appearance of the Rebel ironclad. The shot from the cannons of the USS Congress repeatedly bounced off the armored Merrimack whose own guns reduced the wooden hulled Congress to matchwood. The Merrimack also rammed the sloop USS Cumberland that promptly sank though in the best traditions of the US Navy the crew kept her guns firing until the very end. Another ship USS Minnesota had run aground and was saved by nightfall and the protective fire from Union troops on shore.

Help was also at hand for the Minnesota in the form of the North's own ironclad the USS Monitor developed by the Swedish engineer Ericsson and when it arrived at Hampton Roads on the night of March 8 the Merrimack's advantage over the US fleet was nullified. The Monitor differed from the Merrimack in that it was built from scratch as an ironclad. It sat low in the water and sported two 11-inch guns mounted in a revolving turret nine feet by twenty feet in diameter. The Merrimack and the Monitor engaged in combat on March 9, but the protective armor of both ships prevailed and neither

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