The Battle of the Ironclads: The Monitor & The Merrimac

*Includes Lieutenant S. Dana Greene's account of the battle from Battles & Leaders of the Civil War *Includes pictures of the ironclads and important people, as well as depictions of the battle. *Includes a Bibliography for further reading. *Includes a Table of Contents “We of the Monitor think, and still think, that we had gained a great victory. This the Confederates have denied.” – S. Dana Greene On March 8, 1862, the newest era of naval warfare began. That day, the CSS Virginia, an ironclad created out of the hull of the scuttled USS Merrimac by the Confederates, sailed down the Elizabeth River to Hampton Roads, where a Union blockade fleet was anchored. The wooden ships of the North were no match for the ironclad, which quickly rammed and sank the USS Cumberland, and as it trained its sights on the USS Congress, one Union officer noted the former Merrimac fired "shot and shell into her with terrific effect, while the shot from the Congress glanced from her iron-plated sloping sides, without doing any apparent injury."