Commodore Gershom Jacques Van Brunt (August 28, 1798 – December 17, 1863) was a United States Naval officer during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
68-466: In the spring of 1861, he was assigned to the command of the steam frigate Minnesota. There he was employed in the severe and trying blockade service at Hampton Roads and also took an important part in the reduction of the Hatteras Forts. He was subsequently entrusted with the supervision and equipment of the expedition to New Orleans under General Banks. At the time of his death he was acting under
136-466: A direct shell hit to her armored pilothouse forced her away from the conflict to assess the damage. The captain of the Monitor , Lieutenant John L. Worden , had taken a direct gunpowder explosion to his face and eyes, blinding him, while looking through the pilothouse's narrow, horizontal viewing slits. Monitor remained in the shallows, but as it was late in the day, Virginia steamed for her home port,
204-599: A few days before her first sortie; the ironclad was placed in commission and equipped by her executive officer , Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones . The Battle of Hampton Roads began on March 8, 1862, when Virginia engaged the blockading Union fleet. Despite an all-out effort to complete her, the new ironclad still had workmen on board when she sailed into Hampton Roads with her flotilla of five CSN support ships: Raleigh (serving as Virginia ' s tender) and Beaufort , Patrick Henry , Jamestown , and Teaser . The first Union ship to be engaged by Virginia
272-671: A friend that would stand by us in our hour of trial," wrote Captain Gershom Jacques Van Brunt (1798-1863), the stranded and damaged Minnesota vessel's commander, in his official report to the Navy Department, the day after the engagement in Hampton Roads. Early the next morning, the CSS Virginia reappeared. As the range closed, the now guarding little Monitor , steaming between Minnesota and
340-666: A new main deck, and a v-shaped breakwater (bulwark) was added to her bow, which attached to the armored casemate. This forward and aft main deck and fantail were designed to stay submerged and were covered in 4-inch-thick (10 cm) iron plate, built up in two layers. The casemate was built of 24 inches (61 cm) of oak and pine in several layers, topped with two 2-inch (51 mm) layers of iron plating oriented perpendicular to each other, and angled at 36 degrees from horizontal to deflect fired enemy shells. From reports in Northern newspapers, Virginia ' s designers were aware of
408-486: A shell which passed through the wooden Union warship's chief engineer's stateroom, through the engineers' mess room, amidships, and burst in the boatswain's room, exploding two charges of powder there, starting a fire onboard the vulnerable wooden frigate which was promptly extinguished. At midday Virginia withdrew southwards back toward Norfolk, and the Union Navy tugs resumed its efforts to refloat Minnesota . Early
476-546: A side; each weighed approximately 9,200 pounds (4,200 kg) and could fire a 72.5-pound (32.9 kg) shell up to a range of 3,357 yards (3,070 m) (or 1.9 miles) at an elevation of 15°. Both amidship Dahlgrens nearest the boiler furnaces were fitted-out to fire heated shot . On her upper casemate deck were positioned two anti-boarding/personnel 12-pounder Howitzers . Virginia ' s commanding officer, Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan , arrived to take command only
544-679: Is held at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum , and one of the Virginia 's anchors now rests in front of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond . Numerous souvenirs, ostensibly made from salvaged iron and wood raised from Virginia ' s sunken hulk, have found a ready and willing market among Civil War enthusiasts and eastern seaboard residents. However, the provenance of many of these artifacts
612-597: Is impossible to prove, which has given rise to the humorous adage that "if you took all the iron and all the wood supposedly collected from the [wreck of the CSS Virginia ], you'd have enough to outfit a fleet of ironclads." Although the Confederacy renamed the ship, she is still frequently referred to by her Union name. When she was first commissioned into the United States Navy in 1856, her name
680-678: The Union Navy manned the forward gun of the federal vessel. This black crew mustered in earlier at Boston, Massachusetts, and included William Brown, Charles Johnson, George Moore, George H. Roberts, George Sales, William H. White and Henry Williams. During the two-day engagement, the Minnesota shot off 78 rounds of 10-inch solid shot; 67 rounds of 10-inch solid shot with 15-second fuse; 169 rounds of 9-inch solid shot; 180 9-inch shells with 15-second fuse; 35 8-inch shells with 15-second fuse and expended 5,567.5 pounds of service gunpowder. For
748-651: The Wabash (first in class), Colorado , Merrimack (salvaged 1861-62 and renamed C.S.S. Virginia by the Confederate States Navy ), and the Roanoke (later converted to a monitor-type ironclad warship). Minnesota , carrying William B. Reed , appointed U.S. Minister to the Empire of China , departed from Norfolk, Virginia , on 1 July 1857 for the continent of East Asia . During her service with
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#1732772355506816-609: The American Civil War and returned to service as the flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron . During the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads on 8 March 1862, Minnesota ran aground, and the following battle badly damaged her and inflicted many casualties. On the second day of the battle, USS Monitor engaged CSS Virginia , allowing tugs to free Minnesota on
884-725: The Atlantic at Newburyport, Massachusetts . After raising, restoring, and outfitting as an ironclad warship, the Confederacy bestowed on her the name Virginia . Nonetheless, the Union continued to refer to the Confederate ironclad by either its original name, Merrimack , or by the nickname "The Rebel Monster". In the aftermath of the Battle of Hampton Roads, the names Virginia and Merrimack were used interchangeably by both sides, as attested to by various newspapers and correspondence of
952-645: The Atlantic Ocean to Europe . She was subsequently placed in ordinary (holding status) at the New York Navy Yard on 13 January 1868. Recommissioned again after eight years on 12 June 1875, she remained at the New York Navy Yard as a gunnery and training ship for naval seamen apprentices. In 1881 she was transferred to Newport, Rhode Island where she served as the flagship of the U.S. Navy Training Squadron. From 1881 to 1884 she
1020-550: The Battle of Hampton Roads . Virginia ' s battery consisted of four muzzle-loading single-banded Brooke rifles and six smoothbore 9-inch (229 mm) Dahlgren guns salvaged from the old Merrimack . Two of the rifles, the bow and stern pivot guns , were 7-inch (178 mm) caliber and weighed 14,500 pounds (6,600 kg) each. They fired a 104-pound (47 kg) shell . The other two were 6.4-inch (163 mm) cannon of about 9,100 pounds (4,100 kg), one on each broadside. The 9-inch Dahlgrens were mounted three to
1088-492: The Chesapeake Bay area. Preliminary sketch designs were submitted by Lieutenants John Mercer Brooke and John L. Porter , each of whom envisaged the ship as a casemate ironclad. Brooke's general design showed the bow and stern portions submerged, and his design was the one finally selected. The detailed design work would be completed by Porter, who was a trained naval constructor .Porter had overall responsibility for
1156-932: The East India Squadron , she visited many of the principal ports of China and Japan before departing Hong Kong to bring Minister Reed home with a newly-negotiated commerce treaty, the Treaty of Tianjin , with the Manchu dynasty of the Chinese Empire. Upon arrival in Boston , Massachusetts , on 2 June 1859, Minnesota was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on the Charles River in Charlestown , Massachusetts, (across from Boston)
1224-581: The Elizabeth River , and heading north across the Hampton Roads harbor to the northern peninsula toward Newport News, Virginia . Minnesota slipped her cables and got underway to engage the Southern warships in a fight that would come to be known as the Battle of Hampton Roads . When about 1.5 miles off-shore from Newport News, the Minnesota grounded. Meanwhile, CSS Virginia passed
1292-599: The SS ; Arago and USS Minnesota , which had been repaired. Virginia made several sorties back over to Hampton Roads hoping to draw Monitor into battle. Monitor , however, was under strict orders not to re-engage; the two combatants would never battle again. On April 11, the Confederate Navy sent Lieutenant Joseph Nicholson Barney , in command of the paddle side-wheeler CSS Jamestown , along with Virginia and five other ships in full view of
1360-522: The schooners Mary Willis , Delaware Farmer , and Emily Ann . Minnesota took the bark Winfred on the 25th and the bark Sally McGee on 26 June. Schooner Sally Mears became her prize 1 July and bark Mary Warick struck her colors to the steam frigate on the 10th. Minnesota led a joint Army-Navy expedition, known as the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries , against two important Confederate forts which had been erected at Hatteras Inlet , North Carolina . The squadron opened fire on Fort Clark on
1428-551: The schooners Mary Willis , Delaware Farmer , and Emily Ann . Minnesota took the bark Winfred on the 25th and the bark Sally McGee on 26 June. Schooner Sally Mears became her prize 1 July and bark Mary Warick struck her colors to the steam frigate on the 10th. After a battle with the CSS Virginia , the Minnesota was forced up onto mud bank. All night tugs worked to haul her off, but to no avail. However, during
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#17327723555061496-630: The Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the important US military bases threatened was Gosport Navy Yard (now Norfolk Naval Shipyard ) in Portsmouth, Virginia . Accordingly, orders were sent to destroy the base rather than allow it to fall into Confederate hands. On the afternoon of 17 April, the day Virginia seceded, Engineer in Chief B. F. Isherwood managed to get
1564-639: The Confederate bastion of Fort Fisher which guarded Wilmington, North Carolina (the First Battle of Fort Fisher ) upstream on the Cape Fear River , the last major open seaport of the South to the outside world. During the landings she took a position about a mile downstream from the fort and laid down a devastating artillery barrage on the Confederate stronghold. However, Union General Benjamin F. Butler (1818-1893), withdrew his troops, nullifying
1632-498: The Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle , was assigned as a junior officer to the Minnesota. While blockading off Hampton Roads, 8 March 1862, Minnesota sighted three Confederate warships, Jamestown , Patrick Henry , and led by the unique revolutionary appearance of the CSS Virginia —the former USS Merrimack , (the 1855 steam-powered heavy frigate , rebuilt since burnt/scuttled in 1861 and now protected by riveted iron plates) — rounding Sewell's Point from Norfolk and
1700-769: The East Branch of the Potomac River ( Anacostia River ) in southeast Washington, D.C. She was named and launched on 1 December 1855, sponsored by Susan L. Mann, and commissioned into the lists of the United States Navy on 21 May 1857 with Captain Samuel Francis DuPont in command. Minnesota was named for the Minnesota River , tributary to the upper Mississippi River . Her sister ships were also named for American rivers:
1768-488: The Southern ironclad withdrew southward back across the harbor toward Norfolk and the Elizabeth River . The recoil from her broadside guns forced Minnesota further upon the mud bank. All night, steam tug boats worked to pull and haul her off the bottom, but to no avail. However, during the night USS Monitor arrived from its southward trip down the East Coast from New York City . "All on board felt we had
1836-619: The Top William Lowell Hill and Ship's Cook Adam Weissel for rescuing fellow sailors from drowning in separate 1881 incidents, and Second Class Boy John Lucy for his actions during a fire at the Castle Garden immigration facility in 1876. In October 1895, Minnesota was loaned to the Massachusetts Naval Militia , continuing that duty for six years until August 1901 when she was sold by
1904-498: The Union plans to build an ironclad and assumed their similar ordnance would be unable to do much serious damage to such a ship. It was decided to equip their ironclad with a ram , an anachronism on a 19th-century warship. Merrimack' s steam engines, now part of Virginia , were in poor working order; they had been slated for replacement when the decision was made to abandon the Norfolk naval yard. The salty Elizabeth River water and
1972-490: The Union squadron, enticing them to fight. When it became clear that Union Navy ships were unwilling to fight, the CS Navy squadron moved in and captured three merchant ships, the brigs Marcus and Sabout and the schooner Catherine T. Dix . Their ensigns were then hoisted "Union-side down" to further taunt the Union Navy into a fight, as they were towed back to Norfolk, with the help of CSS Raleigh . By late April,
2040-416: The Union's blockading fleet and nearby cities, like Washington, D.C. While under tow, she nearly foundered twice during heavy storms on her voyage south, arriving in Hampton Roads by the bright firelight from the still-burning triumph of Virginia ' s first day of handiwork. The next day, on March 9, 1862, the world's first battle between ironclads took place. The smaller, nimbler, and faster Monitor
2108-484: The accompanying USS Mount Washington . While anchored off Newport News on 9 April 1864, the Minnesota was attacked by the Confederate States naval torpedo boat Squib , which exploded a torpedo charge alongside the federal warship, fortunately without causing substantial damage and escaped. On 24 and 25 December 1864, Minnesota took part in the joint Union Navy and Army amphibious operations at
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2176-419: The addition of tons of iron armor and pig iron ballast, added to the hull's unused spaces for needed stability after her initial refloat, and to submerge her unarmored lower levels, only added to her engines' propulsion issues. As completed, Virginia had a turning radius of about 1 mile (1.6 km) and required 45 minutes to complete a full circle, which would later prove to be a major handicap in battle with
2244-475: The area around Craney Island and found that "there are no large areas of either concentrated or scattered debris associated with the Virginia lying on the river bottom within the survey area." Most of the recovered iron was melted down and sold for scrap (notably, some of the ship's iron was used to craft Pokahuntas Bell in 1907). Other pieces of the ship have been preserved in museums: The ship's brass bell
2312-460: The badly-damaged Congress finally surrendered. While the surviving crewmen of Congress were being ferried off the ship, a Union battery on the north shore opened fire on Virginia . Outraged at such a breach of war protocol, in retaliation Virginia ' s now angry captain, Commodore Franklin Buchanan, gave the order to open fire with hot-shot on the surrendered Congress as he rushed to Virginia ' s exposed upper casemate deck, where he
2380-478: The battle ending without a clear victor. The captain of Virginia that day, Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones , received advice from his pilots to depart over the sandbar toward Norfolk until the next day. Lieutenant Jones wanted to continue the fight, but the pilots emphasized that the Virginia had "nearly three miles to run to the bar" and that she could not remain and "take the ground on a falling tide." To prevent running aground, Lieutenant Jones reluctantly moved
2448-503: The congressional Medal of Honor as part of the landing party which assaulted the fort. The nine men were: Ordered back north to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine / Portsmouth, New Hampshire , Minnesota was then decommissioned and stricken from the lists of the U.S. Navy on 16 February 1865. She was recommissioned however two years later on 3 June 1867 and made a cruise with midshipmen across
2516-453: The conversion, but Brooke was responsible for her iron plate and heavy ordnance, while William P. Williamson, Chief Engineer of the Navy, was responsible for the ship's machinery. The hull's burned timbers were cut down past the vessel's original waterline, leaving just enough clearance to accommodate her large, twin-bladed screw propeller . A new fantail and armored casemate were built atop
2584-411: The deck stanchions , railings , and both flagstaffs. Even so, the now-injured Buchanan ordered an attack on USS Minnesota , which had run aground on a sandbar trying to escape Virginia . However, because of the ironclad's 22-foot (6.7 m) draft (fully loaded), she was unable to get close enough to do any significant damage. It being late in the day, Virginia retired from the conflict with
2652-470: The expectation of returning the next day and completing the destruction of the remaining Union blockaders. Later that night, USS Monitor arrived at Union-held Fort Monroe . She had been rushed to Hampton Roads , still not quite complete, all the way from the Brooklyn Navy Yard , in hopes of defending the force of wooden ships and preventing "the rebel monster" from further threatening
2720-425: The far more nimble Monitor . The ironclad's casemate had 14 gun ports , three each in the bow and stern, one firing directly along the ship's centerline, the two others angled at 45° from the center line; these six bow and stern gun ports had exterior iron shutters installed to protect their cannon. There were four gun ports on each broadside ; their protective iron shutters remained uninstalled during both days of
2788-466: The federal frigate Congress and rammed and sank sailing frigate Cumberland . Virginia then engaged Congress compelling her to surrender and setting her afire. Then the rebel iron warship Virginia , along with Jamestown , and Patrick Henry bombarded the stranded Minnesota killing and wounding several of her crew before the Union Navy warship's heavy guns drove them off. Minnesota also fired upon Virginia with her pivot gun . Toward twilight
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2856-491: The first year of the American Civil War ; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the razéed (cut down) original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack . Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads , opposing the Union's USS Monitor in March 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads . When
2924-519: The frigate's engines lit. However, the previous night secessionists had sunk light boats between Craney Island and Sewell's Point , blocking the channel. On 20 April, before evacuating the Navy Yard, the U. S. Navy burned Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture. When the Confederate government took possession of the fully provisioned yard, the base's new commander, Flag Officer French Forrest , contracted on May 18 to salvage
2992-589: The government to the Thomas Butler & Company of Boston . She eventually was stripped and burned to salvage her iron fittings at nearby Eastport, Maine . • Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1989, ISBN 0-87021-783-6 . CSS Virginia CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during
3060-418: The iron-clad Southern attacker, fired gun after gun from her revolving turret, and the Virginia returned fire with whole broadsides from her numerous cannon on both of her sides, but neither with much apparent effect on the other. Virginia , finding she could not hurt Monitor , then turned her attention to the grounded Minnesota , who answered with all remaining guns. Virginia fired from her rifled bow gun
3128-469: The ironclad back toward port. Virginia retired to the Gosport Naval Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia, and remained in drydock for repairs until April 4, 1862. In the following month, the crew of Virginia were unsuccessful in their attempts to break the Union blockade. The blockade had been bolstered by the hastily ram-fitted paddle steamer USS Vanderbilt , and SS Illinois as well as
3196-408: The ironclad's unarmored lower hull, but this was still not enough to make a difference. Without a home port and no place to go, Virginia ' s new captain, flag officer Josiah Tattnall III , reluctantly ordered her destruction in order to keep the ironclad from being captured. The ship was destroyed by Catesby Jones and John Taylor Wood, who set fire to scattered gunpowder and cotton strewn across
3264-597: The morning of 10 March. Minnesota was repaired and returned to duty, and three years later she participated in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher . Minnesota served until 1898, when she was stricken, beached and burnt to recover her metal fittings and to clear her name for a newly-ordered battleship, USS Minnesota (BB-22) . Minnesota was laid down in May 1854 by the Washington Navy Yard on
3332-673: The morning of 28 August 1861, forcing the Confederate gunners to abandon the fort at noon. The following day, the fire of the squadron was concentrated on Fort Hatteras. The bombardment was so effective the Confederates were compelled to seek cover in bomb shelters and surrendered. When Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough relieved Stringham in command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron on 23 September, he selected Minnesota as his flagship. William B. Cushing , later to distinguish himself for sinking
3400-578: The new Union ironclads USRC E. A. Stevens and USS Galena had also joined the blockade. On May 8, 1862, Virginia and the James River Squadron ventured out when the Union ships began shelling the Confederate fortifications near Norfolk, but the Union ships retired under the shore batteries on the north side of the James River and on Rip Raps island. On May 10, 1862, advancing Union troops occupied Norfolk . Since Virginia
3468-469: The next few years she served as flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron for the Union Navy / United States Navy . During the Battle of Suffolk at Norfleet House on 14 April 1863, four of the Minnesota ' s sailors, Coxswains Robert Jordan and Robert B. Wood and Seamen Henry Thielberg and Samuel Woods , earned the famous congressional Medal of Honor while temporarily assigned to
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#17327723555063536-625: The next morning, the 1859 side-paddlewheel steamship S. R. Spaulding (on duty as a hospital ship with the Hospital Transport Service of the United States Sanitary Commission ) joined the several tugs and managed to pull free and refloat the heavy frigate, and she sailed east and anchored under the protecting guns opposite Fortress Monroe (still Union-occupied) at Old Point Comfort for temporary repairs. Seven African-American sailors of
3604-549: The night USS Monitor arrived. "All on board felt we had a friend that would stand by us in our hour of trial," Van Brunt wrote in his official report the day after the engagement. Van Brunt was born in New Jersey in 1798 and entered the Navy from that state in 1818. With his wife, Elizabeth Price Bradlee, he was the father of Henry Van Brunt . He died at his residence in Dedham, Massachusetts on December 17, 1863. He
3672-744: The orders of the War Department as Inspector of Transports for the New England District. He received his commission as Commodore in July 1862. When the USS Minnesota was recommissioned on 2 May 1861 with Van Brunt in command, it became flagship of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron , commanded by Flag Officer Silas Stringham . She arrived at Hampton Roads , Virginia, on 13 May and the next day captured
3740-485: The previous gains won by the joint Army-Navy effort. Three weeks later in January 13-15, 1865, the Union Navy returned with more Federal Army troops, now commanded by the much more vigorous and aggressive General Alfred Terry (1827-1890), to Fort Fisher for a second effort (the Second Battle of Fort Fisher ). A landing force of 240 men from Minnesota , covered by a cannonade barrage from their own ship, participated in
3808-463: The ram's port side half; shot from Cumberland , Congress , and the shore-based Union batteries had riddled her smokestack, reducing her boilers' draft and already slow speed; two of her broadside cannon (without shutters) were put out of commission by shell hits; a number of her armor plates had been loosened; both of Virginia ' s 22-foot (6.7 m) cutters had been shot away, as had both 12-pounder anti-boarding/anti-personnel howitzers, most of
3876-460: The same day and remained in ordinary (holding status) there until the outbreak of the American Civil War two years later in April 1861. Minnesota was recommissioned on 2 May 1861, Captain G. J. Van Brunt in command, and became flagship of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron , commanded by Flag Officer Silas Stringham . She arrived at Hampton Roads , Virginia, on 13 May and the next day captured
3944-422: The ship's deck. Early on the morning of May 11, 1862, off Craney Island, the fire reached the ironclad's magazine, leading to a massive explosion that obliterated the ship. What remained of the Virginia then sank to the harbor floor. After the war, the government determined that the wreck of the Virginia needed to be removed from the channel. In 1867, Captain D. A. Underdown salvaged 290,000 pounds of iron from
4012-503: The site, much of which was taken from the ship's ram and cannons. The following year, Underdown detonated explosives under the Virginia 's hulk to fully clear the river, but the attempt did not totally remove the wreck. In 1871, E.J. Griffith recovered an additional 102,883 pounds of iron from the seabed, and in 1876, the "remaining timbers" of the ship were raised. In 1982, the National Underwater and Marine Agency explored
4080-522: The successful assault. This operation finally after four years of effort closed outside access to the city and port of Wilmington, denying the collapsing southern Confederacy the use of this very last open invaluable major seaport, just three months before the end of the war in the East . During the Second Battle of Fort Fisher of January 1865, nine sailors and Marines from the Minnesota earned
4148-443: The wreck of the frigate. This was completed by May 30, and she was towed into the shipyard's only dry dock (today known as Drydock Number One ), where the burned structures were removed. The wreck was surveyed and her lower hull and machinery were discovered to be undamaged. Stephen Mallory , Secretary of the Navy decided to convert Merrimack into an ironclad , since she was the only large ship with intact engines available in
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#17327723555064216-614: Was Merrimack, with the K ; the name was derived from the Merrimack River near where she was built. She was the second ship of the U. S. Navy to be named for the Merrimack River, which is formed by the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers at Franklin, New Hampshire . The Merrimack flows south across New Hampshire , then eastward across northeastern Massachusetts before finally emptying in
4284-508: Was able to outmaneuver the larger, slower Virginia , but neither ship proved able to do any severe damage to the other, despite numerous shell hits by both combatants, many fired at virtually point-blank range. Monitor had a much lower freeboard and only its single, rotating, two-cannon gun turret and forward pilothouse sitting above her deck, and thus was much harder to hit with Virginia ' s heavy cannon. After hours of shell exchanges, Monitor finally retreated into shallower water after
4352-432: Was commanded by Captain Stephen Luce (1827-1917), who founded the Naval War College there at the end of his command tenure in 1884. The warship took part in dedication ceremonies for the famous Brooklyn Bridge across the East River (between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn ) in New York City on 24 May 1883. Three sailors assigned to Minnesota were awarded the Medal of Honor during this period: Captain of
4420-399: Was injured by enemy rifle fire. Congress , now set ablaze by the retaliatory shelling, burned for many hours into the night, a symbol of Confederate naval power and a costly wake-up call for the all-wood Union blockading squadron. Virginia did not emerge from the battle unscathed, however. Her hanging port side anchor was lost after ramming Cumberland ; the bow was leaking from the loss of
4488-411: Was now a steam-powered heavy battery and no longer an ocean-going cruiser, her pilots judged her not seaworthy enough to enter the Atlantic, even if she were able to pass the Union blockade. Virginia was also unable to retreat further up the James River due to her deep 22-foot (6.7 m) draft (fully loaded). In an attempt to reduce it, supplies and coal were dumped overboard, even though this exposed
4556-410: Was remembered for his fervent zeal lofty patriotism and unswerving faith in the ultimate triumph of the flag of his country. USS Minnesota (1855) USS Minnesota was a wooden steam frigate in the United States Navy . Launched in 1855 and commissioned eighteen months later, the ship served in east Asia for two years before being decommissioned. She was recommissioned at the outbreak of
4624-523: Was the all-wood, sail-powered USS Cumberland , which was first crippled during a furious cannon exchange, and then rammed in her forward starboard bow by Virginia . As Cumberland began to sink, the port side half of Virginia ' s iron ram was broken off, causing a bow leak in the ironclad. Seeing what had happened to Cumberland , the captain of USS Congress ordered his frigate into shallower water, where she soon grounded. Congress and Virginia traded cannon fire for an hour, after which
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