The "Monitor," under Lieutenant John Lorimer Worden (1818 97), had left New York on the morning of March 6; after a dan gerous passage in which she twice narrowly escaped sinking, she arrived at Hampton Roads during the night of the 8th, and early in the morning of the 9th anchored near the "Minnesota." When the "Merrimac" advanced to attack the "Minnesota," the "Moni tor" went out to meet her, and the battle between the iron-clads began at about 9 A.M. on the 9th. Neither vessel was able seri ously to injure the other. The "Monitor" had the advantage of being able to out-manoeuvre her heavier and more unwieldy ad versary; but the revolving turret made firing difficult, and com munications were none too good with the pilot house, the position of which on the forward deck lessened the range of the two turret guns. The machinery worked so badly that the revolution of the turret was stopped. After two hours' fighting, the "Monitor" was drawn off, so that more ammunition could be placed in the turret. When the battle was renewed (at about 11.3o) the "Merrimac" began firing at the "Monitor's" pilot house; and a little after noon a shot struck the sight-hole of the pilot house and blinded Lieutenant Worden. The "Monitor" withdrew in the confusion consequent upon the wounding of her commanding officer, and the "Merrimac" after a short wait for her adversary steamed back to Norfolk. There were virtually no casualties on either side.
After the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederates on May 9, Commodore Josiah Tattnall, then in command of the "Merrimac," being unable to take her up the James, sank her. The "Monitor" was lost in a gale off Cape Hatteras on Dec. 31, 1862.
Though the battle between the two vessels was indecisive, its effect was to "neutralize" the "Merrimac," which had caused great alarm in Washington, and to prevent the breaking of the Federal blockade at Hampton Roads ; in the history of naval warfare it may be regarded as marking the opening of a new era— the era of the armoured warship.
See W. Swinton, Twelve Decisive Battles of the War (1867) ; J. R. Soley, The Blockade and the Cruisers (1883) ; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, vol. i. (1887) ; Frank M. Bennett's The Monitor and the Navy under Steam, chap. ii. (Boston, 'goo) ; George Robert Durand, A Great Naval Battle as Seen by an Eye-Witness (1913) ; S. Dana Greene, "The 'Monitor' at Sea and in Battle," U.S. Naval Inst. Proc., vol. xlix., p. (1923) ; W. Tindall, "The True Story of the Virginia and the Monitor," Virginia Mag. of Hist. and Biog., vol. xxxi., p. 1-38, 9o-145 (1923) ; S. C. Bushnell, The Story of the Merrimac and the Monitor (1924).