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The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (review)

2007; Kent State University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cwh.2007.0069

1533-6271

Kevin J. Weddle,

Colonialism, slavery, and trade

Reviewed by: The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia Kevin Weddle The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. Edited by Harold Holzer and Tim Milligan. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006. Pp. 222. Cloth, $44.95; paper, $24.95.) Although the vast majority of Civil War literature and scholarship focuses on land campaigns, one naval action has received a lot of attention, the famed first battle between the ironclads USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The Battle of Hampton Roads: New Perspectives on the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, edited by Harold Holzer and Tim Milligan, is the latest attempt to make sense of this epic duel and provides some fresh and exciting perspectives. This collection of essays is the product of a recent symposium on the battle at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Nine very readable articles written by capable historians and expertly edited by Holzer and Milligan comprise the book. All of the essays in this collection are strong, but some are truly exceptional. The first essay, by William C. Davis, provides the reader with an excellent, straightforward account of the events surrounding the battle and its aftermath. [End Page 306] Perhaps the best of this outstanding collection is Craig Symonds's "Building the Ironclads." Symonds covers the fascinating odyssey of the design, building, outfitting, and employment of both the Monitor and the Virginia. The design and construction of both ships proved challenging, to say the least. In the Virginia's case, merely gathering the construction materials was difficult because of severe shortages of iron in the Confederacy. Eight hundred tons of iron plate were required, but "there was not that much iron in the entire State of Virginia." Symonds writes that the Confederacy was forced to rip up "hundreds of miles of its own railroads, a measure of both its industrial weakness and its desperation" (25–26). In contrast, John Ericsson's great invention, the Monitor, suffered from the inevitable teething pains common to any piece of innovative technology. In the end, Symonds argues, it was the visionary policymakers on both sides (Gideon Welles for the Union and Stephen Mallory for the Confederacy) "who took a chance on an unproven technology, and the inventors and designers who made that technology a reality" (35). David Mindell's "Iron Horse or Iron Coffin: Life Aboard the USS Monitor" paints a vivid picture of the harsh living conditions on a ship that really "was partly a submarine" (37). He describes and analyzes the very real conflict between the captains and crews who had to sail and fight the ships and the designer, John Ericsson. In other essays, John Quarstein describes the short but eventful life of the CSS Virginia. Mabry Tyson writes a thoughtful piece that argues that the Virginia was the real victor on that fateful day in March 1862. One of the editors of this fine volume, Harold Holzer, provides the reader with a fascinating and entertaining discussion of the artwork that resulted from the battle. Howard Fuller describes the impact of the Monitor and its progeny on the Union's overall naval policy and the ship's value as a deterrent against the formidable naval might of Great Britain. In an odd but interesting article, John Quarstein and Joseph Gutierrez debate a number of questions posed by a moderator at the symposium in the chapter titled "Who Won the Battle of Hampton Road? A Historians' Debate." Although the historians are trying to make a case rather than an objective analysis, it seems a bit out of place in this volume. Although the contest is hard fought—not unlike the actual Battle of Hampton Roads—Gutierrez, who takes the Monitor's side in the contest, in my opinion wins the debate. The last essay, by Jeff Johnston, "Discovery and Recovery—The Modern History of the USS Monitor," is a riveting account of the search for, and the discovery and the recovery of, the Monitor's remains. [End Page 307] I was surprised, however, that Johnston glosses over in one short paragraph the discovery of the remains of the crewmembers. As a historian...