Introduction

During American Civil War, what is now America was divided into the Confederacy (the South) and the Union States (the North). The North and the South clashed, the South to keep its independence as the Confederate States of America and the North to regain the lost states.

During this, the Confederate and Union forces had a heavy interest in conquering the seas. The Union wanted to blockade the South's imports and exports, and the Confederates wanted to avoid that. There were many battles at sea before, but before the Monitor and the Merrimack there were only wooden ship battles. So this battle, and these ships changed the war and the way ships were made from now on.

Before the Monitor and the Merrimack

Though this battle was the first between two ironclads, they were by no means the first of their kind. The US Navy had debuted "Ol' Ironsides" before these, and predating that, in 1592, Korean Admiral Yi-sun made the first iron ship to repel the Japanese Military. The French and the British made iron ships before these as well.

The Monitor and the Merrimack

Two ironclad ships, for the first time in history collided. During the American Civil war, the Union ship USS The Monitor and the Confederate CSS Virginia. The Virginia had been raised from the Union ship USS The Merrimack after Union forces sunk it when the state that the Union naval yard it was in joined the Confederacy. The Virginia was still referred to as its Union name though. Both of these ships were expected to sink quickly, as the Monitor was an unlikely design and the Merrimack was only from the parts of an old Union ship. The twenty gun Merrimack had destroyed two Union ships, the Cumberland and the Congress and eventually was engaged by the small Union two gunned USS Monitor. Ordinarily, a small ship like the Monitor wouldn't attack the Merrimack, but it was defending another beached Union ship.

Though the Merrimack had eighteen more guns, the Monitor fought it into a draw, defending a wounded USS Minnesota. This marked the first battle between two ironclad ships.

The First Battle

The two Union named ships engaged in a four and a half hour battle on March 9, 1862 with almost no structural damage to each other. This marked a turning point in naval warfare. Capt. Buchanan commanded the Virginia, and Lieutenant Worden commanded the Monitor.
The Merrimack had sunk only wooden ships before and was unable to destroy the Monitor. The Merrimack had sustained almost no damage from the previous two ships, and was in good shape, which is one of the biggest surprises of this battle.

Neither side could claim victory, the Merrimack retreated and the Monitor had sixteen times the deaths.

After

In April, the Confederate ship once again advanced the Monitor, this time led by Captain Tattnall, but the Union ship denied any combat. Later on, the Virginia was dismantled due to a Confederate Generals inability to lighten her. And the Monitor sank in heavy seas in 1862.

Today, the idea of ironclad ships has moved to land. The idea of tanks was largely affected by the American Civil War's new use of the ironclad ships by convincing generals on both sides of the practical use of the ironclad, and thus winning it favor and proving it effective.