Lincoln's Secret Weapon

Battle of the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (Merrimack)

Today on Far Future Horizons we present an episode from the acclaimed PBS series NOVA that tells the story of a naval battle fought during the American Civil War that was to change the face of naval warfare forever.

The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack (or Merrimac) or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies. It was fought over two days, March 8^th –9th, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade.

This is the story of an armoured combat vessel that opened up an entirely new chapter in naval warfare. At a critical moment of the American Civil War in 1861, the Navy commissioned the USS Monitor to test a daring idea-that a mechanical fighting machine could inflict a crushing defeat on Confederate forces.

CSS Virginia

Not long after its legendary confrontation with the ironclad Merrimack, the Monitor sank in stormy seas off Cape Hatteras. Almost a century and a half after these stirring events, NOVA's cameras follow the Navy's risky efforts to salvage the secrets of the Monitor as it lies rusting on the ocean bottom.

Lincoln’s Secret Weapon is available on DVD from Amazon.com.

NOVA - Lincoln's Secret Weapon

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