THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9507290009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 29 lines
The warship that dueled the ironclad Monitor was not the Merrimac. The CSS Virginia proudly rode the Bay that day. The Virginia was the reincarnation of the scuttled wooden warship Merrimack, which was burned to the waterline and sunk by retreating Union troops as they evacuated Norfolk after the secession of Virginia.
Confederate engineers salvaged the burned-out hull and used it to build a new warship, one such as the world had never seen before.
After tests conducted on Jamestown Island determined what thickness of iron plating would stop an exploding cannonball, Tradagar Iron Works in Richmond produced the plating which covered the CSS Virginia down to the waterline. The design was brilliant, and it changed for all time the way warships are constructed.
With history on our doorstep, the least we can do is get the names correct.
D. MATTHEW KELLY
Virginia Beach, June 30, 1995 by CNB