Tuesday, February 5, 2013

How a Spy Spurred the USS Monitor

From the January 4, 2013 Washington Post Opinion.

Mary Touvestre was a freed slave who worked as the housekeeper for a Confederate engineer turning the frigate USS Merrimack into the ironclad ram CSS Virginia.  She overheard her employer talking about it and realized the new ship's significance.

She proceeded to steal a set of the ship's plans and delivered them to the Department of the Navy in Washington, DC.  This prompted the North to begin work on their own ironclads, one of which was the USS Monitor.

Old B-R'er

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