The historic first battle of ironclads ended quietly, accounted a draw that day but with nothing marked certain for the future. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton envisioned no end of disasters to come: the sinking of the rest of the blockading squadron, the loss of Fort Monroe, the capture of the Federal foothold in North Carolina, the bombardment and burning of Washington.
The Rebel ironclad would put every seaboard city under tribute, he claimed. Throughout this diatribe Stanton glared accusingly at Secretary of the Navy Welles, but Welles remained calm. His sources told him, he said, that the Merrimack was hardly seaworthy enough to go ranging up and down the Atlantic coast, and it drew too much water to ascend the Potomac as far as Washington. In any case, he understood that the Monitor ought to be on the scene by now, and he had sent his assistant secretary, Gus Fox, to Hampton Roads to report on what ensued.
Welles also pointed out that when General McClellan and the army had refused to act against Norfolk the previous fall, the navy had been left to handle the problem on its own. For McClellan, this first report from Hampton Roads seemed suddenly to put his whole grand campaign at risk. Finally, in late afternoon, came a dispatch from Fox at Fort Monroe.
The Monitor is uninjured and ready at any moment to repel another attack. Indeed, that was its effect. The repositioned Rebel army would threaten his intended landing place at Urbanna on the Rappahannock. McClellan now had no choice but to change his base of operations to Fort Monroe and to advance from there up the peninsula toward Richmond.
Fort Monroe itself was a secure base, but putting the Army of the Potomac ashore there necessitated securing Hampton Roads from the threat posed by the Virginia. McClellan telegraphed Gus Fox to seek assurances on that score. A new iron beak replaced the one wrenched off in ramming the Cumberland. Mechanics banded four feet of hull below the citadel with iron, patched the smokestack, and fitted shutters to the gun ports.
They replaced two damaged guns, and equipped the rifled guns with steel-tipped solid shot. One hundred tons of ballast was added to cause it to ride lower in the water. All these changes made the Virginia a more formidable fighting machine, but slowed the ironclad to four knots and increased the draft to 23 feet. Still, the most important change of all was a change of command. Buck Buchanan had been too badly injured in the fighting on Saturday to resume command, and logic pointed to his executive officer, Catesby Jones, continuing the command.
However, the department thought otherwise. Tattnall was 66, the oldest officer of rank in Confederate naval service. He had gone to sea during the War of and served against the Algerian pirates and in the war with Mexico. From his record, Tattnall seemed a feisty old sea dog like Buchanan. In fact, over the years he had grown cautious and conservative.
In his new command, Tattnall felt overburdened with responsibilities—defending against the Yankee fleet, guarding Norfolk, blocking the James River route to Richmond.
For all these tasks he considered the Virginia slow, cumbersome to maneuver, and at constant risk of engine failure. Robert E. Tattnall decided his best course was to stay within the confined waters off the mouth of the Elizabeth and try to lure the Monitor into a one-on-one joust.
His battle tactic would be one of the oldest in sea warfare—boarding. On the morning of April 11 a tall column of black smoke once again announced the Virginia coming out. Transports in the roadstead scattered, and the Monitor and others in the blockading squadron cleared for action. Tattnall dipped his colors to invite the joust, but there was no response and no movement among the Federals. The missions of the two ironclads were thus confirmed.
The Monitor , for its part, had no other duty but to guard against a sortie by the Confederate ironclad. General McClellan, laying siege to Yorktown, wanted the Monitor to attack the Rebel shore batteries there, but a direct order from the president prohibited risking the ironclad against any target other than the Virginia.
As April turned to May, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate army at Yorktown, announced that he could not hold on there for long.
If he retreated, Norfolk would be lost. It therefore became essential that the Virginia find a new berth somewhere up the James. Without notice to Captain Tattnall, Norfolk had been abandoned to the Yankees. Despite the mortal blow delivered to the Cumberland , Virginia became entangled in wreckage and was at risk of being carried down.
The ironclad was able to dislodge itself from the frigate's side, but in doing so the lethal ram broke free. With one opponent vanquished, Virginia turned its sights on the nearby USS Congress, which, having witnessed Cumberland's fate, purposely ran aground. Unable to deliver a ram attack, Virginia maneuvered to pound the frigate with powerful broadsides, forcing Congress to strike its colors.
During this time, Buchanan was wounded by musket fire coming from shore. With daylight waning and its captain needing medical attention, Virginia broke off its attack.
The next morning, Catesby Jones, now in command of the Virginia , prepared the rebel ironclad for another assault, now against the USS Minnesota. As the Virginia approached the Minnesota, it noticed a strange raft-like vessel defending its quarry and shifted fire to the newcomer, USS Monitor. Chief Surgeon Algernon Garnett is detailed to serve as surgeon of the Merrimack. December 3. December 7. December January Workman finish iron plating the Merrimack.
February 7. Lubricating oil for the Confederate ironclad arrives from Richmond. Food and other supplies are stored on the Merrimack. Merrimack launches, is commissioned and re-christened as the CSS Virginia. The CSS Virginia is placed in a dry dock for repairs.
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