March 9, 1862 Sunday
President Lincoln receives a report from Gen Wool at Fortress Monroe, Virginia that Confederate ship "Merrimac" entered Hampton Roads the preceding day and destroyed U.S.S. "Cumberland" and U.S.S. "Congress," and that other ships and Fortress Monroe itself are in danger. President Lincoln calls an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss defense measures in the event "Merrimac" starts toward Washington. That afternoon Sec Stanton divulges information that preparations are under way to stop "Merrimac" from reaching Washington by blocking the river channel. About nine o’clock in the morning the modern era of naval warfare began. The iron-constructed U.S.S. Monitor, with a single revolving turret housing two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns, battled the ironclad C.S.S. Virginia (Merrimack). The success of the wooden-hulled, iron-plated, floating battery of the South of the day before was forgotten. Now it was a duel of two revolutionary gladiators of the sea, circling, charging, ramming, and withdrawing. Shells bounced and slid over both vessels, neither one suffering serious damage. After more than two hours of fighting U.S.S. Monitor withdrew temporarily, due to the eye injury of Lieutenant John L. Worden, but soon returned to the scene to find that C.S.S. Virginia, also suffering some minor injuries, had withdrawn to Norfolk. By the end of the battle both vessels were commanded by their executive officers, Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene for U.S.S. Monitor, Lieutenant Catesby ap Roger Jones for C.S.S. Virginia. For the most part the strong Federal fleet and the small Confederate escort stood idly by – obsolete in such a fight. Tactically the struggle was a draw. Neither vessel had been seriously damaged; neither had given up. Strategically, however, the edge went to the Federals, though for weeks there was dread that C.S.S. Virginia would sally forth to destroy the fleet or even appear off Washington or New York. But her poor engines and heavy draft imprisoned her in Hampton Roads. In Washington news of the battle brought a sigh of relief at the White House, and in Richmond a stronger realization that the time had come when Norfolk and the eastern end of the Peninsula, perhaps even Richmond, could be seriously threatened from the James River. Both nations feared the new machines of war they could not understand. U.S.S. Monitor’s chief engineer, Alban Stimers, wrote his father correctly that the fight “was the first of its kind that ever occurred in history.” (
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/even ... 9mar62.htm )
Other things happened this day: skirmishing near Nashville on the Granny White Pike; at Big Creek and Mountain Grove, Missouri; and at Sangster’s Station, Virginia. Federal troops of Grant’s army, led by C.F. Smith, for several days probed toward Purdy, Tennessee in operations from Crump’s Landing near Savannah on the Tennessee River. President Lincoln asks Henry J. Raymond to reconsider compensated emancipation and to print another article in the New York "Times." "One half-day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware, at four hundred dollars per head."
In northern Virginia there was no fighting, although an important move continued. Gen Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederates pulled out of Centreville, and the whole army was moving toward the Rappahannock River, reaching Rappahannock Station and a new line by the eleventh. The Federal army, substantially outnumbering its foe, was marching out, too, but not to battle – only to occupy the unoccupied Confederate camps for a brief time before returning to Alexandria. They found scant supplies, abandoned huts and fortifications, some of them still mounting fake wooden guns. McClellan’s “victory” was hollow indeed. In New Orleans two precious Confederate powder mills blew up, with five killed.
Naval force under Commander Godon, consisting of U.S.S. Mohican, Pocahontas, and Potomska, took possession of St. Simon's and Jekyl Islands and landed at Brunswick, Georgia. All locations were found to be abandoned in keeping with the general Confederate withdrawal from the seacoast and coastal islands. (
http://blog.jekyllisland.com/diversions ... history-2/ )
U.S.S. Pinola, commanded by Lieutenant Crosby, arrived at Ship Island, Mississippi, with prize schooner Cora, captured in the Gulf of Mexico.
Landing party from U.S.S. Anacostia and Yankee of the Potomac Flotilla, Lieutenant Wyman, destroyed abandoned Confederate batteries at Cockpit Point and Evansport, Virginia, and found C.S.S. Page blown up.
Charles William Field, CSA, was appointed to Brigadier General.