Battle of Hampton Roads

About 3.5 miles south of here on 8-9 March 1862 occurred the first engagement between ironclad warships. On the battle’s first day, the Confederate ironclad ram Virginia sank two major warships and threatened the rest of the Union fleet in Hampton Roads. USS Monitor, an experimental ironclad, arrived that evening to defend the grounded USS Minnesota. The next day, the two ironclads fought for four hours, and the battle ended in a draw. This naval engagement led to a revolution in warship design by proving the power of iron over wood.