Combat· American Civil War
Battle of Hampton Roads
The first battle between ironclad warships, and a costly day for the Marines aboard the wooden fleet.
On 8 March 1862 the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, the rebuilt Merrimack, steamed into Hampton Roads and fell upon the Union blockaders. She raked the sloop Cumberland with grapeshot that swept the gun deck, cutting down nine of her Marines, before driving her iron ram into the ship's side; the Cumberland went down with her colors flying, the young Marine officer Charles Heywood, later a Commandant, keeping the survivors at their guns to the last. The Virginia then destroyed the frigate Congress. The next morning the Union ironclad Monitor arrived and fought the Virginia to a draw in the first duel of iron against iron. Marines served the guns on both ironclads. The battle made every wooden warship in the world obsolete in an afternoon.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 414