Gratuitous Civil War Geek Posting (TM)

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads, fought in 1862 between the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia , nee U.S.S. Merrimac. (The Virginia was built from the scuttled hull of the Merrimac.) It was the first match of ironclad versus ironclad.

The battle itself ended in a draw, with neither ship able to overcome the other, although the Monitor's ability to withstand the Virginia (which had sunk two wooden U.S. Navy ships the previous day and damaged a third), prevented the Confederates from breaking the Yankee blockade of Norfolk.

The Virginia never fought again, being scuttled a couple of months later in anticipation of the Union's Peninsular Campaign. The Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras in December of that year.

I've got nothing in particular to say about the fight today other than to mark the anniversary. I find it amusing, though, that the I-664 bridge-tunnel connecting Hampton and Chesapeake should be named the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel instead of the Monitor-Virginia Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.

Yankee sensibilities strike again.