C.S.S. Virginia (1862)
The Virginia comes out to fight in an artist's conception; © 2005 by Andy Simmons.
Background
In the spring of 1861, Confederate forces advanced toward Washington, evicting Union officials from federal installations throughout northern Virginia. One such was the great navy yard across from Norfolk, VA (Gosport Shipyard). There the 6-year-old steam frigate Merrimack was in port for engine repairs. Like the entire facility, she was scuttled and set ablaze before the federals retreated. However, the ship only burned to the waterline. Assessing the assets left them by the Yankees, the Confederates reckoned the ship could be salvaged and converted to an invincible ironclad. So the hulk was brought into the yard's drydock and there stripped and reconstructed under the partial supervision of Catesby ap Roger Jones, CSN, who had served as a lieutenant aboard the Merrimack. A lofty gundeck casement arose on top of the remaining hull (plan) and soon was bristling with captured guns: ten in all -- a 7" rifled pivot gun each at bow and stern, three 9" smoothbores plus a 6" rifle per side, all muzzle-loaders. Renamed Virginia, the ship was frankly experimental, featuring a radically sloping casement to deflect shot, with a narrow deck of open metal grating across the peak. The areas of hull projecting from the citadel both forward and aft were intended to run awash. A roughly conical conning station was erected at the forward peak of the casement. A smokestack, a pair of ventilators, a galley smokejack, two small boats, a jackstaff, and a flagstaff completed the ship's deck fittings. Anchor chains ran across the foredeck into a capstan inside the enclosure.
Below the waterline at the bow, she carried a sharp, 24-foot bronze ram. Virginia became the first of many under-powered Confederate ships with chronic engine trouble. Several months' immersion in the Elizabeth River's brackish tidewater had only compounded pre-existing engine trouble and fire damage. Nevertheless, the crew had her in working order by March.
The Virginia as conceived by Joe Hinds (work available through Primedia).
Specifications for the Virginia:
Dimensions: 275' x 38'8" x 22' Displacement: ~3,200 tons. Armament: (2) 7" MLR; (2) 6" MLR; (6) 9" Dahlgren smoothbores; (2) 12-pdr howitzers; reinforced ram. Armor: 4" railroad iron (two 2" thicknesses) on casement and conning tower. Propulsion: Original engine salvaged from the burnt-down Merrimack - 2-cyl., horizontal return connecting rod steam engine shafted to single screw. Maximum speed: 9 kts. Crew: 320.
Metric Specs:
Dimensions: 88 m x 11.8 mx 6.7 m. Displacement: ~3,200 tons. Armament: (2) 180-mm MLR; (2) 152-mm MLR; (6) 229-mm Dahlgren smoothbores; (2) 12-pdr howitzers; reinforced ram. Armor: 102 mm railroad iron (two 51-mm thicknesses) on casement and conning tower. Propulsion: Original engine salvaged from the burnt-down Merrimack - 2-cyl., horizontal return connecting rod steam engine shafted to single screw. Maximum speed: 16.7 km/hr. Crew: 320.
Exploits of the Virginia
The Virginia's crew had her working and -- under pressure from Richmond -- took her out on the attack before she was fully completed; there were workmen still aboard as the ironclad faced off against the Federal blockaders at Hampton Roads. Located at the confluence of the James and Elizabeth Rivers, Hampton Roads opens into the Chesapeake 4 miles to the east. If Virginia could break out here, nothing could prevent her steaming north to bombard Washington, some 150 miles (240 km) away on the Potomac. Northern spies had been reporting on the work of conversion at Gosport, and the implications were not ignored: stopping the mutant gunship was a top federal concern.
On March 8, 1862, accompanied by five gunboats, Virginia steamed forth into the roadstead to find two large sailing men-of-war and a steam frigate anchored there (map). First she rammed the sloop-of-war USS Cumberland and sank her, in the process losing her ram embedded in Cumberland's hull, and starting a dangerous leak forward which reduced her speed. The ship's iron armor worked beautifully: cannonballs merely bounced off with a clang. Unprotected parts of Virginia -- namely the smokestack -- were soon riddled, impairing draft to the boilers and thus reducing the ship's available power. Enlarge image
Next the Virginia went after the sailing frigate USS Congress, whose captain had intentionally grounded her to avoid being rammed and sunk. The two ships traded shots for about an hour, after which the Congress struck her colors. While men were being ferried off the surrendered ship to shore, a Union gun battery ashore took ranging shots at Virginia. Though they posed little threat to his ship, Capt. Franklin Buchanan, commanding the Virginia, ordered the Congress burnt in retribution for the apparent Yankee bad faith. His gunners poured on the red-hot shot and Congress was soon ablaze. Not content with two kills, Virginia next took on the grounded steam frigate Minnesota, but as daylight was already failing, the Confederate flotilla soon retired to base, intending to return the next day and complete the devastation of the Union fleet.
But the following morning the Confederates had a nasty surprise. The USS Monitor, a novel type of turret ironclad never before seen, had arrived under tow the previous night and anchored by the torchlight of the Congress. On March 9, 1862, when Virginia put in her appearance under the command of Catesby ap Roger Jones (replacing the wounded Buchanan) the compact, nimble Union ironclad was waiting for them with steam up. Jones was responsible for coining the expression "cheesebox on a raft" as he spied the Monitor through his telescope. Virginia never got near a wooden ship that day, as the two ironclads steamed around and around each other, trading salvos. Monitor's very low profile gave her immunity at close range: the Virginia's guns could not depress sufficiently to hit her hull close in. Monitor maneuvered with ease, while the Virginia was a lumbering giant with nearly a half-mile turning radius. Eventually her smokestack was shot clear away, further damaging the performance of her boilers. Monitor, on the other hand, suffered a direct hit on her pilothouse. Her commander, Lt. John L. Worden, was carried away temporarily blinded. It became clear that neither ship could penetrate the other's armor to inflict a mortal wound. The 4 hours' fight was a draw, although Union partisans might claim at least a moral victory as the Virginia once again withdrew upriver. At right above is artist Daniel Dowdey's conception of the duel of the ironclads at Hampton Roads; as always, our thanks to the artist for the use of his fine work.
Contemporary lithograph of the action, with the pall of gunsmoke miraculously thinned to improve visibility.
Detail from a large chromolithograph of the Hampton Roads battle erroneously shows the Cumberland sinking and her men being rescued at the same time as the Duel of the Ironclads. Whatever its lack in chronological accuracy, this is a spirited and delightfully detailed work that conveys a great sense of the location. View entire print (appr. 1MB)
The Virginia was never again to succeed in luring wooden ships into battle. She revisited the scene of her triumph several times, but the Monitor was there under orders not to engage. On May 10, 1862, Union troops of General McClellan's force re-took Norfolk. Because of her deep draft, Virginia could not retreat further upriver, and lacking a base, could not remain in the vicinity. So, after only 4 months in commission, the ship was ordered burnt and scuttled. On May 11 the flames exploded her magazine, blasting the pioneer ironclad to bits, as seen here in a melodramatic period print.
Virginia had an influence out of all proportion to her brief existence. The Confederate States Navy built a fleet of casement ironclads of her general type, but of shallower draft, and her shape was imitated in coastal ironclads in Europe too. Perhaps the ultimate compliment came when the Yankees produced a 377-foot oceangoing battleship based on Virginia: the USS Dunderberg.
