The Battle of Hampton roads was a historic naval battle which changed the way people thought about naval combat and strategy forever. The Merrimack, a former Union steam freighter, was raised in the Norfolk Naval Yards by the confederates after it had been sunk, and was refitted as an ironclad and renamed the Virginia. To counter this threat, the Union contracted John Ericsson to construct a Union ironclad, named the Monitor. The Monitor was of a very novel design, resembling a "tin can on a shingle." It had a flat deck, with a large turret with two 11 inch cannons, and a propellor at the rear. On March 8, 1862, the Virginia engaged the wooden ships Congress and the Manasses, sinking the Manasses and the Congress, and running aground two other union ships, the Roanoke and the Minnesota, sent to intercept her. The Virginia withdrew, thinking these ships defeated, but the following day, the USS Monitor engaged the Virginia to protect the grounded ships. The fought each other for many hours, until finally the monitor retired into shallow waters, at which point the Virginia, thinking the monitor had given up, retired feeling the had won. When the Monitor returned to resume the battle and saw the Virginia sailing away, they thought that the Virginia had given up and they had won. On May 10, 1862, the Virginia was burned to prevent her capture by Union troops. On December 31, 1862, the Monitor sank in a storm of Cape Hatteras. Thus perished two of the greatest ships of the Civil War
--Scott Ross '2000, Student at Nobles
--history teacher: Timothy Kelly
