The Monitor’s iron-covered gun turret, which rotated by steam power for a wide firing range, was its most distinctive feature. After the battle with the Merrimac, the Monitor was engaged in the Union’s Peninsular Campaign on the James River in Virginia. Heading south in December 1862, the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras.
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
Photograph, U.S.S. Monitor, by James F. Gibson, July 9,1862
The Monitor and the Merrimac
The 37th and 38th Congresses (1861–1865) played an active role during the Civil War through legislation, appropriations, and oversight. In 1861, Congress encouraged development of the ironclad warship. The U.S.S. Monitor, designed by Swedish-American engineer John Ericsson, was tested in an encounter with the Merrimac, a Union ship the Confederates had captured, fitted with iron armor, and renamed the C.S.S. Virginia. Their March 9, 1862 battle at Hampton Roads, Virginia—the world’s first between steam-powered ironclads—revolutionized naval warfare.
The Monitor’s iron-covered gun turret, which rotated by steam power for a wide firing range, was its most distinctive feature. After the battle with the Merrimac, the Monitor was engaged in the Union’s Peninsular Campaign on the James River in Virginia. Heading south in December 1862, the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras.
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
