The USS Merrimac of Civil War history is sometimes spelled with a “k”. But I live in the Tidewater Virginia area, where it is always spelled with the “c”.
The Best of Its Kind
When the USS Merrimac was built (1854-5), she was state-of-the-art. Steam powered with screw propellers, fast, sturdy and beautiful, with tall masts and billowing sails. She was one of six brand new frigates commissioned in the early 1850s, and with the others in her class, was named for US Rivers. Hers was the Merrimac River, which flows through New Hampshire, and ends in Merrimac, Massachusetts.
The Merrimac was 275’ in length, and 38.5 abeam, conventionally made of durable live oak wood. She carried 40 new 8” and 10” guns. According to the New York Times, she was “a magnificent specimen of naval architecture,” and “the finest vessel of war of her class that had ever been constructed.” Well, maybe. Then.
She definitely was a beauty as far as looks went. But there were problems. Her screw propellers, which allowed for the steam propulsion, required the engine placed below the water line to protect it from shell fire. She rolled badly, which reduced her ability as a gun platform. The engines themselves were a chronic problem.
She did see activity for three or four years, including serving as the flagship of the US fleet in the Pacific, but by February, 1860, the Merrimac put in at the Gosport/Norfolk VA Shipyards for substantive repair.
Repair. Elections. Fort Sumter.
The Merrimac was still under repair when Abraham Lincoln was elected President in November 1860, and everyone knew that troubled times were ahead. By his inauguration on March 4 1861, several southern states had either seceded, or were poised to do so within days.
Gideon Welles, Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy, with little naval knowledge or experience, rose to his office capably and quickly. One of his first acts was to order the Merrimac to be “shipshape” immediately, and to bring her to Philadelphia, out of harm’s way. The day before the firing on Fort Sumter, Welles ordered that “great vigilance be exercised” to protect Norfolk and the ships/shipyards. And that included their cannon and ammunition.
But the “new” Confederate states fired on Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor, on April 12, and the Civil War began. Naturally President Lincoln, despite his best angels and intentions, could not permit this act to go unchallenged. He called for 75,000 volunteer soldiers, tripling the Army of the United States.
Three days later, a wavering State of Virginia declared itself for the Confederacy. And this pushed the US Navy to order the Norfolk Navy Yards be evacuated, razed and burned to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
Blocking and Firing
During the very shaky days before Ft. Sumter, many naval officers, seamen, longshoremen and mechanics were personally committed to the nascent Confederacy. Some of them hatched a secret plot that if war was declared, they would deliberately scuttle and sink some old decommissioned vessels in the channel to block its entry, preventing any ships from entering – or leaving. On April 20, they did exactly that.
Then, in the early hours of April 21, the remaining naval personnel loyal to the Union, set fire to the entire Navy Yard, including whatever ships remained, to prevent capture. This included the USS Merrimac, which had been unable to leave the blocked port.
This of course was a great loss to the US Navy, since the Merrimac was not only one of their finest and most modern vessels, but boasted 40 serviceable cannons. It was later discovered that inside one of the watertight compartments, there were 2000 ten-pound shells. Nevertheless, they would see her again.
The Make Over
After the fire, Confederate divers learned that the USS Merrimac had only burned to the water line and the hull below was salvageable, repairable and serviceable. They hauled it out of the water, and immediately went to work.
Within a month, the remains of the hull were towed into Norfolk’s only remaining dry dock. Scuttling the damaged part, they rebuilt a new ship. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory, aware of Union plans to build ironclad vessels, ordered the ex-Merrimac to be turned into an ironclad steamship. It was the only large vessel in the Chesapeake Bay Area, and it was all they had.
The Virginia
Less than a year after the scuttling of the Merrimac, the CSS Virginia emerged as her reincarnation. Funny looking and shaped like a floating barn roof, she was 275’ long, a little more than 51’ abeam, with a deep 21’ draft, which would prove her undoing: difficult to maneuver. But she was tough, covered in 4” overlapping iron plates. She also boasted ten big guns.
On March 7, 1862, the Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads, a large channel where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Within hours, she had sunk the USS Congress, and the USS Cumberland. Federal ships rained fire on the Virginia, but the cannonballs literally bounced off her iron hull. Then she turned to attack the Minnesota, but it was growing dark. She would return the next day.
For 24-hours the Virginia was the most important seafaring vessel in the world.
Nemesis
But during the night, one of the strangest objects ever seen on water sailed into Hampton Roads, mostly guided by the burning flames of the Congress and Cumberland. Sailors said it looked like a cheese box on a raft. It was the Monitor, come to save the day.
For nearly ten hours, the Virginia and the Monitor fired shell after shell at each other, with minimal damage. Finally, with night approaching, the Virginia withdrew. It was a draw.
Nevertheless, every other navy in the world was now obsolete. Ironclad was in, wood was out. Two months later, the Virginia was scuttled, this time by the Confederate Navy to prevent it from capture.
Sources:
Catton, Bruce – The Civil War – The Fairfax Press, 1971
Henig, Gerald S. & Niderost, Eric – Civil War Firsts: The Legacies of America’s Bloodiest Conflict – Stackpole Books, 2001
Stokesbury, James L. – A Short History of the Civil War – William Morrow, Co. – 1995
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Monitor-and-Merrimack
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