Stalemate in Hampton Roads
In a “big glass case”
After the March 8-9, 1862, Battle of Hampton Roads, CSS Virginia went into drydock for refitting. USS Monitor guarded Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s transport vessels in the York River near Fort Monroe, and the Federals reinforced the bows of fast steamers to ram Virginia if she ventured into the Chesapeake Bay. The Confederates concocted a plan (but did not execute it) to disable Monitor’s crew after reading a report in Scientific American: immobilize the turret, pour chloroform into it, cover the pilothouse with a tarpaulin, and wait for the vessel to surrender. More practically, Virginia received a new 14-foot-long ram as well as armor-piercing shot for her Brooke rifles to use against Monitor.
On April 11, Virginia, under Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall, entered Hampton Roads at 7:10 A.M. The Federal transports there scattered to the protection of Fort Monroe. Monitor, commanded by Lt. William N. Jeffers and reinforced by the iron-hulled Naugatuck, remained in the channel between Fort Monroe and the Rip-Raps under orders not to engage Virginia unless she entered the open waters of Chesapeake Bay. Virginia steamed around Hampton Roads until 4:00 P.M. while the Federal fleet watched, hoping that Monitor would attack. Lt. Joseph N. Barney in CSS Jamestown, meanwhile, captured two Union brigs and an Accomac schooner along Hampton Flats in front of you. Virginia, flying the captured flags upside-down in disdain, fired at Naugatuck and finally returned to Gosport Navy Yard.
The Northern press lambasted the Federals’ lack of response, and Acting Assistant Paymaster William Keeler of Monitor expressed the crew’s frustration: “I believe the Department is going to build a big glass case to put us in for fear of harm coming to us.” Almost a month passed before the two ironclads again challenged each other for control of Hampton Roads.
Marker is at the intersection of Chesapeake Avenue (Virginia Route 167) and East Avenue, on the left when traveling west on Chesapeake Avenue.
Courtesy hmdb.org
