The Battle of Hampton Roads
Section 1: Introduction
Lite Study
Section 2: Hampton Roads Enters the War
Lite Study
Section 3: The Battles
Lite Study
Section 4: Impact on Naval Warfare
Lite Study

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Section 2: Hampton Roads Enters the War (Lite)

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen R. Mallory, realizing the the Confederacy could never match the Union in numbers of ships focused on a recent innovation: ironclad steam-powered warships.

The former USS Merrimac, now christened the CSS Virginia, was commissioned in February 1862. In addition its iron sheathing, Virginia was designed to ram enemy vessels.

Meanwhile, the Union, learning of the Confederacy’s new naval strategy, developed their own ironclad, the USS Monitor.