Ironclad Down: USS Merrimack—CSS Virginia from Construction to Destruction (review)

On a clear, sunshine-filled day on March 8, 1862, the United States suffered the greatest naval defeat in that nation’s history. Not until Japanese warplanes roared in over Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, seventy-nine years later, did it suffer a greater catastrophe. By the end of that day in 1862, two major U.S. warships, the pride of the fleet, rested shattered and destroyed on the bottom of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and one other, while still afloat, lay damaged. It was a shocking day, and it spread fear and panic throughout the northern states. Two hundred and forty-four American sailors died, and many more suffered in wounded agony. The instigator of this defeat was the Confederate Navy ironclad, CSS Virginia.

Divided into three parts, Carl D. Park’s Ironclad Down is a detailed account of the design and building of the Virginia, including the individuals responsible for her construction. Park proposes that the three men most accountable for the emergence of this innovative warship were Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory, Chief Constructor John L. Porter, and Commander John M. Brooke. The author devotes the first three chapters of Ironclad Down to a short biography of the lives of these three men prior to the Civil War. His research and analysis of the impact they had on the development of ironclad warships is outstanding. Park also covers the stinging controversy and war of words between Porter and Brooke as to who was most responsible for the design of the Confederate ironclad. Unfortunately, this disagreement carried over into the printed media long after the war and clouded the successful achievements that were part of the Virginia story.

As Park points out, historians know much about the two-day battle between the Virginia and the Federal warships in Hampton Roads, but they know relatively little concerning the design and construction detail of the Confederate ironclad. A master model builder, the author has spent more than fifteen years studying the intricacies of the design and building of the Virginia. In addition, Park researched the plan of the original Merrimack and its sister ships, the Colorado and the Roanoke, to better understand the detail of the lower part of the ship upon which the builders placed the armored casemate. The result is that Ironclad Down is the most detailed and up-to-date study of the CSS Virginia., the construction detail may be more information than the average reader would want, but for the serious historian or model builder, the book is a goldmine of information. Numerous scale line drawings, internal and external ship profiles, and drawings of the design and fabrication of the casemate, all done by the author, only serve to enhance the text.

The next to the last chapter is devoted to the epic two-day battle between the Virginia, and the Cumberland, the Congress, the Minnesota, and finally the Monitor. Some readers may be disappointed that Park devotes only one chapter to the historic battle, but that information is readily available in numerous other publications, and the thrust of the book is not the battle, but the design and construction of the Virginia. The final chapter is a study of the causes and circumstances surrounding the evacuation of Norfolk, the inability of the Virginia to navigate the James River, and the ultimate destruction of the ironclad.

Ironclad Down is a well written, illustrated, and exhaustively researched history of the CSS Virginia and is a must read for anyone interested in the naval aspect of the Civil War.