USS Monitor is Born: 
In the 1860s America was divided in two by the Civil War, North and South fighting for supremacy, and the iron-clad warship emerged as a new tactic in Naval warfare. In the North the Iron Clad Board was implemented, with three senior naval officers in charge of finding a workable design for the Union’s first foray into such ship construction. Out of 17 proposed designs the USS Galena was chosen and taken under consideration until the designer of the Galena met with engineer and inventor John Ericsson, who had drafted prints for a ship of his own. With a superior design featuring screw propellers and heavy iron plating, and relying exclusively on steam power for the first time, Ericsson’s ship was chosen, later to emerge as the USS Monitor.
Built in the dockyards and iron foundries of New York, and launched in Brooklyn on January 30, 1862, the Monitor was the first iron-clad warship in the Union Navy. At 172 feet long she sat incredibly low to the water, the bulk of the ship, including the entire hull, completely submerged. Atop the hull was an overhanging armored deck, complete with an armored belt that hung over the edge, protecting any areas that may have been exposed. Sitting so low, and completely covered in iron plating, the Monitor was not just a well protected vessel but a difficult target to hit. For offensive purposes a large round, rotating turret was erected on the deck, completed with twin 11” Dahlgren guns, a type of muzzle loading naval artillery common at the time. Wrapped in eight layers of inch-thick armor, with a ninth plate-layer on the interior, the turret was practically impenetrable save for the two small gun ports.
A Legendary Naval Battle:
On March 8, 1862 the Confederacy’s first iron-clad warship, the CSS Virginia, engaged Union ships off the Virginia coast at Hampton Roads. With her contemporary design and armor the Virginia proved to be more than a match for the USS Cumberland, USS Minnesota, and USS Congress. Quickly sinking the Cumberland after ramming it, the Virginia turned on the Congress, which had run aground, firing white-hot shot until the ship burned as she sank. Moving on to the Minnesota, which had been grounded since the initiation of battle, the Virginia inflicted what damage it could before relenting over night. During this time the Union was hastily moving the Monitor from its port in New York to aid the vessels in Hampton Roads. So pressing was the emergency that final fittings and additions were done by crews aboard the Monitor while she was towed by a separate ship.
Arriving in Hampton Roads on the night of March 8, the Monitor would engage the Virginia early the next morning in what would become a legendary and revolutionary naval battle. Though each ship attacked with all the firepower available neither vessel suffered much damage, and after almost five hours of firefight no winner could be declared. Both the Union and the Confederacy, realizing the might of iron-clad ships, later pressed to have more produced, forever changing the tide of naval warfare. The two ships met once more on May 8 , near Sewell’s Point, Virginia and though both ships were agitating for a battle none was initiated, and three days later the Virginia was scuttled as Union forces once again overtook Norfolk and the Naval Yard.
The USS Monitor Sinks:
Following the historic battle with the CSS Virginia, the Monitor assisted in General McClellan’s further campaign in Virginia, though without much success. While being towed to Rhode Island later that year, during heavily stormy weather, she was sunk off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. While her low profile and heavily armored design made her ideal for port and river warfare, in high seas these worked to a terrible disadvantage, pulling the Monitor under along with 16 unfortunate crewmen. Though this glorious ship met an untimely demise, the USS Monitor forever changed naval warfare along with her southern counterpart the CSS Virginia. These two ships lead both North and South to implement further iron vessels of war, and later with a united country, allowed for the creation and evolution of the massive warships we know today.
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