The Day an Ironclad Warship Changed Naval History

160 years ago today, on March 8th 1862, an ironclad warship engaged in battle for the first time. The CSS Virginia, more commonly known at the time as the Merrimack, was NOT the world's first ironclad warship ever constructed. But she was the first to engage in battle, sailing out into Hampton Roads to confront a Federal squadron of traditional wooden vessels. The ensuing clash sent shockwaves around the world, ushering in a new era of naval technology and firepower. The age of wooden warships ended on March 8th.
And tomorrow, March 9th, would see another "first." A Union ironclad, USS Monitor, arrived at Hampton Roads to confront the rebel monster and engage in the world's first ironclad-on-ironclad duel. Join us TOMORROW here on Little Wars TV as we wargame the action on the tabletop, on location at Newport News.
Today's video is part of an ongoing "On to Richmond" series, where we follow the progress of George McClellan's campaign up the Virginia peninsula to the gates of Richmond, 160 years later. Subscribe to the channel and join the march!

[@forrestpenrod2294]

My Great+ Grandfather was a sailor on the USS Minnesota during the battle. When he got off the ship from Ireland he immediately enlisted in the US Navy not long before Hampton Roads. Apparently he stuck his head out of a gun port to watch the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia duke it out but at some point a nearby cannon fired, either unexpectedly or the gunners didn't know he was there, and he lost most of his hearing. After surviving the battle he was mustered out. Very grateful that the USS Monitor not just saved the Minnesota but possibly my ancestor.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Wow, that's some truly incredible family history. Will the mighty Minnesota also survive our anniversary wargame tomorrow....? We'll find out soon enough!

[@brentonrettig6028]

1:06 I LOVE that photo bomb!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[@milesreidy7864]

what photo bomb? I didn't see a photo bomb, just a very dignified gentleman strolling past...

[@rossw9764]

Just a peaceful protestor

[@richardklug822]

Great intro...can't wait for tomorrow (hopefully with the miniatures battle).

[@LittleWarsTV]

Oh yea. You can count on it! We'll be back tomorrow with the main event!

[@mrgunn2726]

Great work Little Wars TV crew, really looking forward to this series. Fire as she bears!

[@Constant_Of_Morality]

Korean Turtle Ships were the first Ironclad ships, Hell even Britain had its first ocean going full ironclad ship 2 Decades before the ACW

[@kiwiwarlord8152]

The uss Cumberland was the wooden ship under sailpower that dealt most damage to a ironclad ship ever. There is also a great song about the battle of the Uss Cumberland versus Css virginia by smokey bastard called Cumberland crew.

[@totalburnout5424]

Beautiful weather, nice place and a good game. In addition, new talents were immediately introduced to our hobby. Great achievement! 👍

[@andypickard7314]

This series is going to be awesome!

[@jackolantern6172]

I was watching the Nat Geo “Drain the Oceans” show and they were talking about the the first “battleship.” There’s a scene where the confederate ironclad is approaching its target union ship and I thought, “Someone needs to edit this to make it sound like they’re playing Sweet Home Alabama, hootin and hollerin inside”

[@anathardayaldar]

The banging of cannon balls on the metal hull must have caused a hell of a headache.

[@christopherhunt1957]

Awesome video. Excited for this series.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Hope you enjoy it! We certainly have!

[@pyrosianheir]

This sounds like it'll be a pretty cool thing. Looking forward to it!

[@stanleydomalewski8497]

Great Video, thanks for Sharing !

[@hamsteronthepaintingtable6465]

Great series, keep it coming and onto Richmond!!!

[@LittleWarsTV]

Thanks! Will do!

[@jmupp2876]

Excited for this series! Love the bowling shirts lol

[@princeofmoskova]

Great museum! Love seeing what remains of the Monitor there. As I recall you used to be able to see parts of the Virginia outside the Old Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. I don't know where those pieces are now that they moved to Tredegar and renamed themselves.

[@michaelclark3261]

Let’s not forget the Brits and French we’re building ocean going s was not the need in the ACW - Virginia and Monitor would not have liked crossing the Atlantic

[@johnwayneeverett6263]

SWEET BEEN THERE WITH FAMILY ALL DAY SAW ONE TENTH OF ALL TOO SEE YAAAA GREAT

[@mrhype1616]

I cannot wait for this week!!!

[@LittleWarsTV]

We have two fun guest stars in tomorrow's wargame. It was a great game to play.

[@mrhype1616]

@@LittleWarsTV me, my popcorn, and my spyglass will be waiting!!

[@sapalot5660]

Not sure if it is still open but there is/was a museum in Fort Monroe that has a lot on the battle. Went there a lot as a kid.

[@hobbitomm]

It does make me wonder what would have happened had the Federal ships boarded.

[@johnrohde5510]

In form, wasn't the Virginia like the unpowered, armoured, floating batteries of the Crimean War?

[@BrianMatthewLee-mv3kb]

Dam the torpedoes Ladies. Hahaha

[@BrianMatthewLee-mv3kb]

The girls and me are sipping on straight Chlorine.

[@avus-kw2f213]

0:24 but what would a squadron of ironclads do to a single wooden ship ?

[@DeePsix501]

Ken Burn does Little Wars TV!

[@danielcannon9893]

Miles being distinguished as always.

[@LittleWarsTV]

He's a class act!

[@stevenverdoliva6217]

Great video and nice shirts.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Gotta love bowling shirts. It's a testament to this club that the first thing guys here wanted when we had any clothing made was "obnoxious bowling shirts." Yea, sounds about right for us.

[@stevenverdoliva6217]

@@LittleWarsTV My game company shirts are bowling shirts but more subdued than yours.😄

[@jeffbybee5207]

Nice retelling of the story. Hope you may forgive me a couple corrections. Virgina was not even the first conferate iron clad into battle. Css manassas attacked 5 union ships at head of the passes below New Orleans. Caused popes run. At Hampton all union ships went toward battle. But minisota grounded as did Roanoke also a sister ship to Merrimack and I beleave the st Laurence also grounded. Franklin may have been first Confederate admiral perhaps beating Farragut of the union but Ralph Simmes of Alabama fame was also promoted to admiral placed in charge of the james River fleet and commanded the naval Bernadette at ironacly names sailors creek after Richmond fell and the fleet burned

[@attea1942]

LoL, Miles

[@chrisburns143]

Imagine if these ironclads had rotating turrets like the union ship. 2 turrets and the stationary cannon would have made for one bad day for the union.

[@LittleWarsTV]

Seeing all the wild ship designs is one of most entertaining aspects of this period of naval warfare. They made some…unusual ships

[@timgoodchild5330]

Who’s the guy in the background at the 1-minute point?????

[@LittleWarsTV]

Hahah Miles crashing the party!

[@slartybartfarst55]

@@LittleWarsTV It was a great Video Bomb! I couldn't tell if he was just waving or saying "I'm going to get a drink" 😀

[@milesreidy7864]

@@slartybartfarst55 I'm pretty sure that rather good looking gentleman was just celebrating that fact that FRANCE built the 1st ironclad. Maybe, if we're all VERY lucky, we'll see more of that miniature gaming Adonis in future episodes. We should all be so lucky.

[@cfox7811]

the biggest wound was to the federal navy's pride? I doubt it.

[@LiscenedColonial]

First to comment and Bro ironclads let's go

[@huntclanhunt9697]

McClelland was a decent srategist, but a very bad tactician. He was also very, very bad at estimating his enemy's strength, and not sure of himself. I don't blame him completely. Grant put it well when he said "I think McClelland was the right man in the wrong time. He was promoted very early, and before we learned the lessons of the war. Had he started with smaller commands and had time to gain experience as I or Sherman did, I think he would be rememmbered as one of the best Generals of the war."

[@thomasbaagaard]

Frist use of ironclads in combat was during the crimean war. And this Day did not revolutionize navel warfare. The results was as the European navies had expected. In 1866 steam ships of the line fought against ironclads and was not just slaugthered

[@LittleWarsTV]

Thank you for this new information, Thomas. We didn't know any ironclad ships engaged wooden ships in the Crimean War. Would love to see the accounts of that engagement if you can share a link for everyone to enjoy.

[@citizenofvenus]

@@LittleWarsTV Ironclad ships didn't engage wooden ships during the Crimean, but they did engage forts. What the first battle of the Crimean War (Sinop) shows is that by that point, versus modern weaponry, wooden armor basically stopped functioning; what later battles showed was that the naval world was now caught in a leapfrog system - you'd upgrade your armor until current modern weaponry couldn't cause your ship to sink anymore; then you'd upgrade your weaponry until you could make a hole. What did happen at Hampton Roads was exactly the 2nd part of that cycle - armor's advancements beat out weaponry's advancement; while the ironclads beat out the wooden ships, they basically only bludgeoned one another (rather than pierce and explode) until they both had to withdraw. The next step in the evolution is Lissa, which solves the problem by ramming; then the Yalu River and so on and so forth all leading up through the modern day with the arms race between armor and guns.

[@LittleWarsTV]

@@citizenofvenus Good to know we didn't miss anything there. I was looking forward to seeing the sources about an earlier engagement between ironclads and wooden warships, as it seemed pretty well established that Hampton Roads was, in fact, the first such encounter.

[@thomasbaagaard]

@@LittleWarsTV that is not your claim. You are claiming that "an ironclad warship engaged in battle for the first time. " That is factual wrong. Engaging forts and shore batteries is also combat. This is like claiming that jet fights was not used during WWII because two jets did not engage each other.

[@hobbitomm]

@@LittleWarsTV French ironclads vs forts en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kinburn_(1855)

[@WyteXLighting]

Confederates really won [>