The first battle between ironclad warships was fought
On this day · 9 March 1862
Off Virginia in 1862, two iron-armored ships dueled to a draw and made every wooden navy on Earth obsolete overnight.
On March 9, 1862, the Union’s USS Monitor met the Confederate CSS Virginia in the waters of Hampton Roads, Virginia — the first battle in history between two ironclad warships.
The Virginia had been built on the salvaged hull of the USS Merrimack and sheathed in iron above the waterline. The day before, she had wrecked the wooden Union ships Cumberland and Congress with near impunity. That night the strange, low-slung Monitor — its revolving gun turret a brand-new idea — steamed in to defend the grounded USS Minnesota.
For hours the two ships hammered each other, and the shot simply bounced off.
Neither vessel could land a decisive blow, and the engagement ended in a draw. But the lesson was unmistakable: armor had beaten wood. The world’s navies took note, and the age of the wooden warship was effectively over.
Sources & references
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