MARCH 8-9TH
USS Monitor arrives at Hampton Roads, Va. at night and takes up position between CSS Virginia and USS Minnesota. An extremely timely arrival.
MARCH 9TH
Engagement lasting four hours between the USS Monitor, Lt. Worden and CSS Virginia, Lt. Jones. Neither side could claim a clear victory, but a new era of naval warfare ushered in as a result. The blockade remained intact, but the Virginia remained a huge threat to all Naval and Army operations in the area.
Serious damage done to USS Minnesota by the Virginia during an interlude in the fight with the Monitor.
Wrote Captain Levin M.Powell of the USS Potomac, "..the face of naval warfare looks the other way now--and the superb frigates and ships of the line...supposed capable a month ago, to destroy anything afloat in half an hour...are very much diminished in their proportions, and the confidence once reposed in them very much shaken in the presence of these astounding facts."
Captain Dahlgren phrased it: "Now comes the reign of iron--and cased sloops are to take the place of wooden ships."
So, much like what happened after Pearl Harbor some 80 years later, the face of naval warfare changed dramatically. Wood out. Iron in. At Pearl, it was battleship out, aircraft carrier in.
However, those warships in Pearl Harbor were clearly the descendants of the two iron vessels who battled it out at Hampton Roads this day, 150 years ago.
And, Iron We Go. --Old B-Runner
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