1862 Endicott View of the Battle between the Ironclads Monitor and Merrimac

This is Charles Parsons' 1862 view of the battle between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia, a captured Union ship formerly called Merrimac. Although the battle was inconclusive, this first confrontation between ironclad ships ushered in a new era of naval warfare.

A Closer Look

This view depicts the legendary confrontation between the Monitor and the Merrimac (originally spelled 'Merrimack' with a k), the first battle in history between ironclad warships. Perspective is oriented towards the west, with Newport News at right and Sewals Point at left, as indicated by the labels under the view ('Jamestown' and 'Yorktown' here refer to the names of Confederate ships, not the nearby cities by those names). The Monitor and Merrimac (or Virginia) dominate the view at center, while other Union and Confederate ships appear nearby. Surrounding the view are vignettes of the interior of the ships, mostly the Monitor, as well as a portrait of its designer, Swedish-born engineer John Ericsson (1803 - 1889). At bottom-left and right are dimensions and other details about both ships. This view was among the first depictions of the famous naval battle disseminated to the public, along with similar views by Henry Bill and Currier and Ives (both previously sold by us), leaving a deep impression on the popular perception of the battle and the war overall.

Battle of the Ironclads

The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimac, part of the wider Battle of Hampton Roads, stands as a pivotal moment in naval history, occurring over two days on March 8-9, 1862, during the American Civil War. At Hampton Roads, Virginia, the Confederate Navy sought to challenge the Union blockade that was stifling the Southern economy and its ability to sustain the war. The Confederates repurposed the scuttled USS Merrimac, armoring it with iron and renaming it the CSS Virginia. When the Union side heard of the Confederate modifications to the Merrimac, Ericson, who had for several years worked on designs for an ironclad ship with a rotating turret, was tasked with preparing an equivalent vessel. The need for a Union ironclad was demonstrated when the Virginia obliterated two wooden Union warships, the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress, in the opening phase of the Battle of Hampton Roads.

The carnage might have continued if not for the timely arrival of the USS Monitor, a revolutionary Union ironclad with a rotating turret. On the second day, the two iron giants clashed, firing heavy shells at point-blank range but failing to inflict critical damage on one another. While neither side could claim a definitive victory, the engagement proved the concept of the 'ironclad', transforming naval combat thereafter. The supremacy of ironclad warships was clear, rendering wooden navies obsolete and ushering in a new era of naval warfare characterized by armored vessels and heavy artillery.

Publication History and Census

This view (and presumably the surrounding vignettes) was drawn by Charles Parsons and printed by Endicott and Co. in New York in 1862, with a copyright held by S.C.A. Lotridge. It is noted among the holdings of the Boston Athenaeum, Williams College, and the American Antiquarian Society in the OCLC. It also appears in the institutional collections of the Yale University Art Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution), the Historical Society of Philadelphia, and the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.