The Battle of Hampton Roads, often called the Battle of Monitor and Merrimack, was a naval battle of the American Civil War, famous for being the first fight between two ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (the latter rebuilt from the burned-out hull of the USS Merrimack ). Resolved . The United States had spent a lot of money supporting the development of the, After the war, Brooke and Porter engaged in an unseemly fight for recognition as the originator of the, This is a more telling comment on the handicaps faced by the South than it may appear. Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones had directed much of the conversion of Merrimack to Virginia, and he was disappointed when he was not named her captain. [CDATA[ [91], Because of Monitor's advanced state of deterioration, timely recovery of remaining significant artifacts and ship components became critical. Emerging from Norfolk on March 8, CSS Virginia inflicted heavy losses on the . The attack was therefore suspended. This effectively left the Confederate capital at Richmond and the main Confederate Navy yard at Norfolk without ocean access. It was fought over two days, March 89, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. On this day in history, the U.S.S Monitor and the C.S.S Virginia would engage in the first battle between Ironclads. Designed by Swedish engineer John Ericsson, the vessel had an unusually low profile, rising from the water only 18 inches. [92] The statue features a stylized male nude allegorical figure on water between two iron cleats. Virginia's draft was too great to permit her to pass up the river, which had a depth of only 18ft (5.5m), and then only under favorable circumstances. //