When was the ironclad used

It was these ships, more so than any other wartime naval innovation, which would revolutionize naval warfare and have long standing effects after the surrender of the Confederacy in With the invention of steel plate technology, both Union and Confederate warships would make the wooden seafaring vessels of the world obsolete.

This technology served the navy first in at the Battle of Hampton Roads. Each side raced to complete their design before the other. On March 8, the Virginia drew first blood. It retired back to Norfolk as the sun went down seeing that the other major Union vessel in the area the USS Massachusetts , had been disabled.

The Virginia, meanwhile, was finding it difficult to outmaneuver the faster and more agile Monitor. At one point, the Confederate ironclad even briefly ran aground in shallow water and had to push its engines to the breaking point to dislodge itself. Sensing that his guns were causing no serious damage to the Monitor, Jones eventually tried to ram it. The Virginia succeeded in colliding with the Yankee ship, but having lost its iron ram the previous day, it was unable to deal any significant damage.

The battle raged all morning with no clear advantage for either side. Catesby Jones was still eager to sink the Minnesota, but with the tide turning and his enemy seemingly in retreat, he decided to withdraw.

When the Monitor finally tried to rejoin the battle, the Virginia had already started steaming back to Portsmouth for repairs. At that, the first ever clash of ironclads came to a sudden and inconclusive end. Both the Union and the Confederacy would later claim victory in the Battle of Hampton Roads, but most historians now consider the contest a tactical draw. The fact that neither one of the ironclads had managed to destroy the other proved to be the most significant lesson of the fight.

In the span of a morning, the Monitor and the Virginia had brought an end to the age of wooden warships. After hearing about the slugfest, navies around the globe devoted themselves to building steam-powered ironclads. The Confederacy and the Union would eventually launch over 70 of the metal behemoths before the Civil War ended. By , with the Battle of Mobile Bay, the use of ironclads was commonplace. Neither the Monitor nor the Virginia lasted long after Hampton Roads.

Later that same year, the Monitor sank in rough seas off the coast of North Carolina. NCpedia will not publish personal contact information in comments, questions, or responses. If you would like a reply by email, note that some email servers, such as public school accounts, are blocked from accepting messages from outside email servers or domains. If you prefer not to leave an email address, check back at your NCpedia comment for a reply. Please allow one business day for replies from NCpedia.

Skip to main content. Is anything in this article factually incorrect? Please submit a comment. Printer-friendly page Ironclads by Henry Harris, References: Leslie S.

Robert G. Paul H. Silverstone, Warships of the Civil War Navies William N. Still Jr. UNC Press. Harris, Henry. Comments Nice information. Nice information. Were ironclads used only by the Confederate? Dear Jake, This article was published online in However, please remember the following copyright notice: This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S.