Customer Reviews

The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Mariners' Museum Publication)

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I suspect that anyone with even a modest interest in American history has heard of the battle of Hampton Roads between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimac). The battle essentially ended in a tie with the two ships injured but still functional.

This book is the report on a symposium held at the Mariners Museum in nearby Newport News. Fittingly it was held on March 5, 2003, the weekend closest to the date of the battle (March 9, 1962) and the 141st year since the fight. The reports given at the conference were so interesting that they have been published in this book.

There are nine chapters that cover the battle itself, how the ships were built, fought, and finally lost. Most important is the aftereffect that the battle had on the navies of the world.

England which had been tempted to come into the war on the side of the south realized that her wooden ships could not face the Monitor (or more specificaly the several Monitors that were being built). In fact all of the navies of the world suddenly realized that their entire navy was obsolete. The future belonged to the steam powered ironclads. And this future lasted until World War II proved them dead and the submarine and aircraft carrier were now supreme.

In recent years the original Monitor has been found and major parts of the ship have been brought to the surface. The final paper in the book is a report on what had been done in the formation of the new USS Monitor Center museum located at the Mariners Museum.

This book brings out a tremendous amount of schlorship on the battle that is missed in the normal cursory treatments given in the history books.

Set during the American Civil War, The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia is the history of the first encounter between ironclad warships, the end of wooden warships, and the beginning of the machine-age navy. An anthology of essays by scholarly authors examine such topics as daily life aboard the USS Monitor, a historical debate of which side won the battle of Hampton Roads, and the battle as depicted in art. An insightful collection, enthusiastically recommended for college library and naval or civil war history shelves.