CSS Virginia
CSS Virginia. The image is captioned Merrimac; see below.
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| History | |
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 Confederate States
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| Ordered: | July 11, 1861 |
| Completed: | March 7, 1862 |
| Commissioned: | February 17, 1862 |
| Fate: | scuttled May 11, 1862 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Casemate ironclad |
| Displacement: | about 4,000 long tons (4,100 t) |
| Length: | 275 ft (83.8 m) |
| Beam: | 51 ft 2 in (15.6 m) |
| Draft: | 21 ft (6.4 m) |
| Installed power: | 1,200 ihp (890 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 5–6 knots (9.3–11.1 km/h; 5.8–6.9 mph) |
| Complement: | about 320 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: | |
CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; it was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and 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 the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, one of the important federal 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 the frigate's engines lit. However, the previous night secessionists had sunk lightboats 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 the wreck of the frigate. This was completed by May 30, and she was towed into the shipyard's only graving dock, (today known as Drydock Number One), where the burned structures were removed.
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