The Civil War Monitor Blog will be posting two Drewry's Bluff posts, focusing on a summary of Battle and some commentary on the memory and commemoration of CPL John Mackie, the first USMC Medal of Honor Recipient. Check back tomorrow to the blog HERE to read these posts.
Below is a transcript of the speech I gave at the USS Monitor NPS Sign dedication on Saturday, 12 MAY 2012. There was also a sign dedication to the Confederate Marines at Drewry's Bluff during the ceremony. A very special thanks to Dave Ruth, Ed Sanders, and Beth Stern at NPS Richmond for allowing the CWN 150 and the U.S. Navy to be represented this weekend at Drewry's Bluff.
In the spring of 1862, Union forces looked for a
direct route to Richmond, both on land and by water. While the Union Army floundered its first
attempts during the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Navy saw relative success. In May, the North Atlantic Blockading
Squadron guarding the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay dispatched a small flotilla
of vessels in an attempt to take Richmond by naval force up the James. If Richmond was the heart of the Confederacy,
the James River was the arterial vein that crept from the Chesapeake Bay to its
heartland. Such success might result in
an early end to a war which had already cost the lives of thousands of men on
both sides of the conflict.
All seemed desperate for the Confederate
capital. By mid May, the Confederacy had
suffered a series of defeats in the West to combined Federal Army-Navy
cooperation culminating in a daring gamble by future Admiral David Glasgow
Farragut to take New Orleans, the South’s largest city. In the east, the Confederacy’s mightiest
warship, CSS Virginia, lay in pieces
near Craney Island at the mouth of the James, unable to traverse its deep draft
upriver. Now a large Army waited patiently for the Union flotilla to attempt to
break into Richmond. Only a few obstacles
stood in the way for the Union reaching their goal, the most formidable being
Fort Darling, situated along Drewry’s bluff just seven miles below
Richmond. It was here on May 15th
that a force of naval ships was repelled by its Confederate defenders. The victory marked the last attempt for a
direct assault into Richmond by water.
Two of the three original Ironclad designs were
part of that James River Flotilla: the
USS Galena and USS Monitor.
Of all the ships that served during the American Civil War, few truly
stand out in the annals of American naval history. Of these, one in particular sits high above
all others, the USS Monitor. The ship is best known for its historic
engagement with the CSS Virginia on
March 9, 1862.
For all the acknowledgement and support in the
collective memory of the Battle of Hampton Roads, it nonetheless tells an
incomplete story to the epic saga of the Monitor
and Virginia. These machines that spurred the ironclad
revolution would be dead in the water without its sailors. It was here at Drewry’s Bluff where the crews
of the Civil War’s most famous ships last battled. The Virginia’s gun crew, now homeless with
the loss of their ship, fired on their adversary downriver as she sought to
protect the weaker yet equally heroic ironclad Galena. In the end, few
shots seriously affected the Monitor, adding to its aura of impenetrability.
The Monitor
was what one Richmond Daily Dispatch
reporter called after the battle an “infernal gunboat” capable of “forces of
evil.” Even the Confederacy viewed the
Monitor as something much more than a ship.
It became a symbol of power and prestige, a near mythological force of
Union naval might capable of inflicting heavy damage on its enemies. Had the bluffs been lower and the angle of
her guns able to reach them, the outcome of the Confederate victory here might
be drastically different.
Many contemporary officers and officials looked at the Monitor with
comical amusement, calling it a “cheesebox on a raft” and “tin can on a shingle.”
Yet that insignificant looking object floating along the entrance to the
Chesapeake Bay and the James River became the most powerful warship in the
world, worthy of envy and praise.
Samuel Dana Greene, Executive Officer of the USS Monitor, said it best about the legacy of the ship which rings true to this day: “No ship in the world's history has a more imperishable place in naval annals than the Monitor.” Without the Monitor, the modern Navy would not be the same. The ship became a rubric and design for subsequent ships of the 19th and 20th century, thus ushering in the creation of a modern surface Navy that survives to this day.
Fifty years from now, how will the Civil War be
remembered? What about the Monitor? It is you, the people who are actively
involved and present with this current sesquicentennial commemoration, who will
keep the memory of it alive and thriving.
Today, we are all here to dedicate the honor, courage, and commitment of
the USS Monitor in its last engagement.
Today, we make history.
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