The Civil War Part 3 - The battle of the Ironclads

The ironclads that fought in the Hampton roads were the first iron battleships. The Virginia or the Merrimack was built to break the blockade which by the way is unconstitutional because in the constitution it says that no blockade can be issued unless at war with a foreign power. But since the south was part of the U.S. and not a foreign power it was not constitutional to issue the blockade.
On March 8th The Virginia came into Hampton roads and sank the Cumberland which was a 22 gun sloop. Then the Virginia turned the Congress a 44 gun ship into an inferno. The captain of the Virginia decided he would leave because one it was getting dark two the steam frigate Minnesota had come to join the fight but had run aground so they thought they could come back tomorrow and finish off the Minnesota the next day. But when they Virginia sailed in the next morning they found that a small iron raft with a turret with two large guns sticking out of it standing between them and the Minnesota. It had been built when the Union found out that the Confederacy was building an iron ship. It had been clear that the Union Navy would need and iron ship to do battle with the one the Confederates were building. The design that President Lincoln choose was for the Monitor. It had been designed by a Swedish inventor named John Ericsson. He had designed it several years earlier, but people had laughed and said it would sink.
John Ericsson had to hurry to get the job done. He had to invent most of the pieces himself. In fact the elevator that was used to hoist the shot up into the turret was the beginning of the modern elevator. So the Virginia opened up on the Monitor but the cannonballs just bounced off the turret in a flurry of sparks. Then the Monitor's turret turned and fired heavy shot at point blank range but it did'nt go through it only slightly damaged the iron plates.
For several hours the two ships cricled each other firing shot after shot into each other. The Virginia tried to ram but they had lost most of it when ramming another ship so it did little dammage. But near the end of the battle one of the gunners aimed at the small box in the front that served as a pilot house. And that was also were the captain was standing. He fired a shell their and blinded the captain of the Monitor. But so much dammage had been taken on both sides that they both retreated. But by the end of that year both ships had sunk. The Virginia had gone back to Norfolk but Major General Benjerman Huger abandoned the city on May 9th without consulting the Navy so now the Virginia was trapped so the captain decided to blow her up, and that is what he did.
Now the Monitor sank in a storm out in the Atlantic while being transported to a new location.
But this had been the first battle between iron ships. Soon other countries began to build their own iron ships and soon the wooden ships would be outdated and old. This was one of the greatest battle in the world. It changed naval warfare forever.

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