Show your pride in battlefield preservation by shopping in our store. His objective was to cut off Rebel trade with the outside world and prevent sale of cotton, the Confederacy's major export. googletag.pubads().setTargeting("surface", "mw"); It was commissioned on February 25, 1862, and arrived at Chesapeake Bay just in time to engage the Virginia. if (isRetina) { Rechristened the Virginia upon its launch in February 1862, it was a formidable vessel. The new USS Monitor Center at the Mariners' Museum officially opened on March 9, 2007, and a full-scale copy of USS Monitor, the original recovered turret, and artifacts and related items are now on display. }); Smith's son, Joseph Smith, Jr., who was also a naval officer, would be killed at Hampton Roads. Soon, however, it was apparent that he had no choice but to fight her. Ordinarily, the ship would have been led by a captain of the Confederate States Navy, to be determined by the rigid seniority system that was in place. For most of the first year of the war, the Confederacy could do little to oppose or dislodge them. When the Yankees invaded the James Peninsula two months after the Battle of Hampton Roads, the retreating Confederates scuttled the Virginia. By late March, the Union blockade fleet had been augmented by hastily refitted civilian ships, including the powerful SS Vanderbilt,[73] SSArago, SS Illinois, and SS Ericsson. var ue_t0=window.ue_t0||+new Date(); Both captains declined the opportunity to fight in waters not of their own choosing; Jeffers in particular was under positive orders not to risk his ship. [51] While the surviving crewmen of Congress were being ferried off the ship, a Union battery on the north shore opened fire on Virginia. [32] The board considered seventeen designs, and chose to support three. [22], When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory was an early enthusiast for the advantages of armor. for(var i=0; i
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