As virtually anyone with a passing interest in naval history knows, the duel between the Monitor and Virginia—which took place 150 years ago in Hampton Roads, Virginia—was a watershed warfare-afloat encounter. In a glimpse of the future, armored—not wooden—ships battled each other.
But often overlooked is the fact that the Battle of Hampton Roads was a two-day affair, and the first day’s fighting, in which the CSS Virginia rampaged through part of a Union squadron of wooden ships with near impunity, was equally momentous. So in planning this issue’s Hampton Roads sesquicentennial package, I wanted to ensure we gave the lesser-appreciated but equally history-altering of the two ironclads, the Virginia, her due. Civil War author, preservationist, and raconteur John Quarstein accomplishes the task, telling the story of the U.S. Navy frigate Merrimack’s transformation into the Virginia and the latter’s brief career in “Proving the Power of Iron over Wood.”
During the war, the Confederate ironclad was frequently referred to as the Merrimack—commonly misspelled as “Merrimac”—despite the fact she had been commissioned as the CSS Virginia. Use of the incorrect name, alliteratively pleasing when paired with “Monitor,” became nearly ubiquitous, with even historians perpetuating the mistake (Albert L. Demaree’s Proceedings article 50 years ago, “The Merrimack—Our Navy’s Worst Headache,” parenthetically notes that “Southerners call her Virginia”). In “You Say Merrimack, I Say Virginia,” a sidebar to his article, Mr. Quarstein explores the history of the name confusion.
The importance of the Battle of Hampton Roads wasn’t lost on those who fought it, and immediately after the events of 8–9 March 1862, participants and onlookers began recording their recollections. Civil War historian Francis DuCoin’s article “And the Winner Was . . .” relies on reports and reminiscences of a crucial turning point and subsequent events during the Monitor-Virginia fight to determine which was the victor.
While most Hampton Roads battle recollections have long been in print, Monitor First-class Fireman John Driscoll’s hadn’t been published—until now. In “The Last Union Survivor,” Coast Guard Chief Historian Robert Browning presents the Irish-born Driscoll’s account of the Monitor’s harrowing voyage to Hampton Roads and dramatic duel with the Virginia—a rare perspective of those events from an enlisted man.
After Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt had arranged for Driscoll and other Monitor veterans to take a voyage through the Panama Canal in 1916, the aged sailor had his recollections recorded and presented to FDR. The original transcript is now at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York. Many thanks to Dr. Browning for editing Driscoll’s account and bringing it to Naval History, as well as to Mr. Quarstein for providing another sidebar, “The Monitor Boys.”
Our Hampton Roads coverage concludes with a tour of the USS Monitor Center conducted by its curator, Anna Gibson Holloway. Located at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia, the center is both a working laboratory where items raised from the Monitor’s wreck site—including her turret and engine—are conserved, as well as a 20,000-square-foot, high-tech exhibition where many of the ironclad’s artifacts are displayed. And for the latest conservation developments concerning another Civil War vessel, the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, see this issue’s “Naval History News” section.