The Civil War

Martina watches NOAA ocean salvagers raise the Monitor turret in 2002

Did you know that 122 battles took place in Virginia during the Civil War? One of these battles was called the Battle of Hampton Roads, or Battle of the Ironclads. On March 8, 1862, the Confederate ironclad Virginia, also known as the Merrimack, steamed into Hampton Roads, sank the USS Cumberland, and ran the USS Congress aground. The next day, the Union ironclad, Monitor, challenged the Merrimack. Even though the two iron-clads fought each other to a standstill, the Monitor recieved credit for the victory. Later in 1862, the Merrimack was destroyed by its crew and the Monitor was lost off the coast of North Carolina during a storm. In 2002, marine salvagers raised the Monitor’s gun turret, engine, and propeller along with other artifacts from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.