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Report of Lieutenant Jones, executive officer of the ironclad ram CSS Virginia, in command during
the battle with USS Monitor.
C.S. STEAM BATTERY VIRGINIA,
Off
Sewell's Point, March 8, 1862.
FLAG-OFFICER: in consequence of the wound of Flag-Officer Buchanan
it becomes my duty to report that the Virginia left the yard this morning at 11 a. m., steamed down the river past
our batteries and over to Newport News, where we engaged the frigates Cumberland, Congress, and the batteries ashore,
and also two large steam frigates, supposed to be the Minnesota and Roanoke, and a sailing frigate and several
small steamers armed with heavy rifled guns. We sank the Cumberland, drove the Congress ashore, where she hauled
down her colors and hoisted the white flag, but she fired upon us with the white flag flying, wounding Lieutenant Minor and
some of our men. We again opened fire upon her and she is now in flames. The shoal water prevented our reaching the other
frigates. This, with approaching night, we think saved them from destruction. Our loss is 2 killed and 8 wounded, two of our
guns have the muzzle shot off. The prow was twisted and the armor somewhat damaged; the anchors and all flagstaffs shot away
and smokestack and steam pipe were riddled. The bearing of officers and men was all that could be wished, and in fact it could
not have been otherwise after the noble and daring conduct of the flag-officer, whose wound is deeply regretted by all on
board, who would gladly have sacrificed themselves in order to save him. We were accompanied from the yard by the Beaufort
(Lieutenant Parker) and Raleigh (Lieutenant Alexander), and as soon as it was discovered up the James River that
the action had commenced we were joined by the Patrick Henry (Commander Tucker), the Jamestown (Lieutenant Barney),
and the Teaser (Lieutenant Webb), all of which were actively engaged and rendered very efficient service. Enclosed
I send the surgeon's report of casualties.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient
servant,
CATESBY AP R. JONES,
Executive and Ordnance
Officer.
Flag-Officer F. FORREST.
Source: Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Series 1, vol.7 (Washington,
Government Printing Office, I 898): 42.
Recommended
Reading: A History of Ironclads: The Power of Iron over Wood. Description: This
landmark book documents the dramatic history of Civil War ironclads and reveals how ironclad warships revolutionized naval
warfare. Author John V. Quarstein explores in depth the impact of ironclads during the Civil War and their colossal effect
on naval history. The Battle of Hampton Roads was one of history's greatest naval engagements. Over the course of two days
in March 1862, this Civil War conflict decided the fate of all the world's navies. It was the first battle between ironclad
warships, and the 25,000 sailors, soldiers and civilians who witnessed the battle vividly understood what history would soon
confirm: wars waged on the seas would never be the same. Continued below…
About the Author: John V. Quarstein is an award-winning author and historian. He is director
of the Virginia
War Museum in Newport News and chief historical advisor for The Mariners' Museum's new USS Monitor Center
(opened March 2007). Quarstein has authored eleven books and dozens of articles on American, military and Civil War history,
and has appeared in documentaries for PBS, BBC, The History Channel and Discovery Channel.
Recommended
Reading: Civil War Ironclads: The U.S. Navy and Industrial Mobilization (Johns Hopkins
Studies in the History of Technology). Description: "In this impressively researched and broadly conceived study, William
Roberts offers the first comprehensive study of one of the most ambitious programs in the history of naval shipbuilding, the
Union's ironclad program during the Civil War. Perhaps more importantly, Roberts also provides
an invaluable framework for understanding and analyzing military-industrial relations, an insightful commentary on the military
acquisition process, and a cautionary tale on the perils of the pursuit of perfection and personal recognition." - Robert
Angevine, Journal of Military History "Roberts's study, illuminating on many fronts, is a welcome addition to our understanding
of the Union's industrial mobilization during the Civil War and its inadvertent effects on the postwar U.S. Navy." - William
M. McBride, Technology and Culture"
Recommended
Reading: Ironclad Down: USS Merrimack-CSS Virginia from Design to Destruction (Hardcover). Description: The result of more than fifteen years
of research, Ironclad Down is a treasure trove of detailed information about one of history s most famous vessels. Describing
the fascinating people--Stephen Russell Mallory, John Mercer Brooke, John Luke Porter, et al.--who conceived, designed and
built one of the world's first ironclads as well as describing the ship itself, Carl Park offers both the most thoroughly
detailed, in-depth analysis to date of the actual architecture of the Virginia
and a fascinating, colorful chapter of Civil War history.
Recommended
Reading: Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, the Monitor and the Merrimack. From Publishers Weekly: The Monitor-Merrimack showdown may be one
of the Civil War’s most overhyped chestnuts: the two ships were by no means the first ironclads, and their long awaited
confrontation proved an anticlimactic draw, their cannon fire clanging harmlessly off each other’s hulls. Still, the
author of this lively history manages to bring out the story’s dramatic elements. Nelson, author of the Revolution at
Sea series of age-of-sail adventure novels, knows how to narrate a naval crisis. He gives a harrowing account of the Merrimack’s initial onslaught, in which it destroyed two wooden
Union warships in a bloody and chaotic battle the day before the Monitor arrived, and of the Monitor’s nightmarish final
hours as it foundered in a storm at sea. Continued below…
Equally arresting
is his retelling of the feverish race between North and South to beat the other side to the punch with their respective wonder
ships. He delves into every aspect of the ships’ innovative design and construction, and draws vivid portraits of the
colorful characters who crafted them, especially the brilliant naval architect John Ericsson, one of that epic breed of engineer-entrepreneurs
who defined the 19th century. The resulting blend of skillful storytelling and historical detail will please Civil War and
naval engineering buffs alike.
Recommended
Reading: Last Flag Down: The Epic Journey of the Last Confederate Warship. From Publishers Weekly: Thriller writer Baldwin (The Eleventh Plague et al.) joins forces
with the prolific Powers (coauthor of Flags of Our Fathers et al.) to come up with a fast-reading Civil War true adventure
saga centered a on young CSA navy lieutenant. The 24-year-old Conway Whittle, an ancestor of Baldwin's,
was assigned as first lieutenant and executive officer on the Confederate raider Shenandoah late in the war. The ship sailed
from London disguised as a merchant vessel and underwent a
memorable cruise round the globe, attacking and destroying Yankee merchant ships and whalers. Whittle and company kept up
their daring sea raids until August of 1865, when they learned that the war had ended five months earlier. The ship returned
to England, having flown the last Confederate
flag at sea in defiance of the U.S. Baldwin and Powers recount their tale in a lively, evocative style and may be forgiven
for being overly fond of their hero. Whittle, they say, "was as good a man as history seems able to produce: a warrior of
courage inconceivable to most people; a naval officer of surpassing calm and intelligence; a seeker after Christian redemption;
a steadfast lover; a student of human nature; a gentle soul; a custodian of virtue."
Recommended
Reading: Gray Raiders of the Sea: How Eight Confederate Warships Destroyed the Union's High
Seas Commerce. Reader’s Review:
This subject is one of the most fascinating in the history of sea power, and the general public has needed a reliable single-volume
reference on it for some time. The story of the eight Confederate privateers and their attempt to bring Union trade to a halt
seems to break every rule of common sense. How could so few be so successful against so many? The United
States, after Great Britain,
had the most valuable and extensive import/export trade in the world by the middle of the 19th century. The British themselves
were worried since they were in danger of being surpassed in the same manner that their own sea traders had surpassed the
Dutch early in the 18th century. Continued below…
From its founding
in 1861, the Confederate States of America realized it had a huge problem since it lacked a navy.
It also saw that it couldn't build one, especially after the fall of its biggest port, New
Orleans, in 1862. The vast majority of shipbuilders and men with maritime skills lived north of the
Mason-Dixon Line, in the United States, and mostly in New
England. This put an incredible burden on the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory. When he saw
that most of the enemy navy was being used to blockade the thousands of miles of Confederate coasts, however, he saw an opportunity
for the use of privateers. Mallory sent Archibald Bulloch, a Georgian and the future maternal grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt,
to England to purchase British-made vessels
that the Confederacy could send out to prey on Union merchant ships. Bulloch's long experience with the sea enabled him to
buy good ships, including the vessels that became the most feared of the Confederate privateers - the Alabama,
the Florida, and the Shenandoah. Matthew Fontaine Maury
added the British-built Georgia, and the Confederacy itself launched the
Sumter, the Nashville, the Tallahassee,
and the Chickamauga - though these were generally not as effective
commerce raiders as the first four. This popular history details the history of the eight vessels in question, and gives detailed
biographical information on their captains, officers, and crews. The author relates the careers of Raphael Semmes, John Newland
Maffitt, Charles Manigault Morris, James Iredell Waddell, Charles W. Read, and others with great enthusiasm. "Gray Raiders"
is a great basic introduction to the privateers of the Confederacy. More than eighty black and white illustrations help the
reader to visualize their dramatic exploits, and an appendix lists all the captured vessels. I highly recommend it to everyone
interested in the Confederacy, and also to all naval and military history lovers.
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