I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 135th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Hampton Roads in Portsmouth, where the burnt hull of the USS Merrimack was transformed into the ironclad CSS Virginia.
BG(Ret) M. H. "Hank" Morris, chairman of the committee that organized this event, put on a fine show. The Governor of Virginia, George Allen, proclaimed March 9, 1997 as "The Battle of Hampton Roads Day". The mayor of Portsmouth, Dr. James W. Holley III, attended several of the functions and welcomed everyone at the reception.
There
were a number of other honored guests. Assistant Secretary of the
Navy (November 1995 - August 1998), John
W. Douglass, attended as a reenactor.
Virginia landsman, William W. Douglass, was apparently a
relative. (His wife indicated that he would spend all his time at
reenactments if he could.)
Captain
William R. Klemm, commanding officer of the Norfolk
Naval Shipyard (which, despite its name, is in Portsmouth and was
known as the Gosport Navy Yard in 1862) gave an excellent talk on the
history of the Navy Yard.
The events began on Friday night with a reception at Trinity Church with the introduction of the special guests by Hank Morris and the welcome by Mayor Holley.
On Saturday, the anniversary of the first day's battle of Saturday 135 years earlier, the symposium featured five speakers. Captain Klemm spoke on Gosport Navy Yard at the time of the battle. Alan Flanders, Director of Public Affairs, US Atlantic Fleet Training Command (author of a book on the construction of the Virginia and frequent contributor of articles on the ironclads to the Virginian-Pilot), spoke about the Virginia and her crew. John V. Quarstein, administrator of Museums and Historical Services, Newport News, spoke about the USS Monitor and her crew. Joseph M. Judge, Curator of Hampton Roads Naval Museum, spoke about the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress. Albert F. Harris, Coordinator of Museums in Portsmouth, spoke about the first day's battle..
At
the commemorative banquet on Saturday night, Hank Morris called the
meeting to order. Mayor Holley again welcomed the gathering and
introduced various members of the audience, particularly members of
the city council. Captain Klemm then introduced Dr. John M.
Coski, historian and librarian at the Museum
of the Confederacy. Dr. Coski, the author of several books, most
recently Capital
Navy: The Men, Ships, and Operations of the James River
Squadron, spoke on the duel of the Ironclads.
On Sunday morning, the reenactors marched from the encampment area to Trinity Episcopal Church. The service this morning was taken from the same 1789 Book of Common Prayer that was used for the Holy Communion taken by the men of the Virginia just before going off to battle. Reverend Dr. Geoffrey M. Hahneman presided over the service. During his sermon, he called the children to the front and sat down with them to talk about remembrance of past times and of the history of that church during the Civil War.
After the service, for four hours, crowds gathered at the First Street waterfront to watch living history presentations. Cannons were fired and reenactors showed the daily routines of both sides during the Civil War.
The
highlight of the reenactment was the mock battle of the ironclads by
one-fifth-sized replicas of the Virginia and the Monitor.
The day was bright and sunny while a stiff breeze made it
somewhat cool for the more than 1000 people who viewed the spectacle.
The site of the reenactment was in a protected area, close to the
shore so spectators could get a good view of the action. Apparently
earlier reenactments were out further from shore and were more
difficult to view. The ships circled each other, firing their cannon
often. From the shore, you could see the gunners retract the cannon,
clear it, and ram new charges down the muzzle. The Virginia
attempted to ram the Monitor. As was the case 135 years
ago, no significant damage was done to either vessel.
I
asked about why the two vessels rode higher in the water than the
originals. The answer was that at one-fifth scale, a real three-foot
wave is like a fifteen-foot wave. Earlier models had been lower and
shipped water through their portholes. (The original CSS Virginia
was deemed too unseaworthy to venture out of Hampton Roads. The
original USS Monitor almost sunk before getting to Hampton
Roads and did sink off Cape Hatteras when it left Hampton Roads.)
There is some interest in building full scale replicas of the Monitor or Virginia. One person indicated that the Monitor would be the more likely first candidate as it would be smaller and cheaper.
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BG (Ret) Hank Morris |
Chairman and |
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RADM(Ret) Jamie Adair |
Vice Chairman |
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Charles Whitehurst |
Treasurer |
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Venus Parker |
Recorder |
Stonewall Camp #380, SCV; Portsmouth Area Civil War Round Table; 1st Battalion Virginia Regulars; 3rd Virginia Infantry; 9th Virginia Infantry; CSS Virginia Ship's Company (Lt. Bill Wharton, commander); Confederate States Marines Co's B&C; Norfolk Light Artillery Blues; 79th New York Highlanders; Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Foundation; Temple of Music; Beazley Foundation; Cox Cable Communications; City of Portsmouth; Navy Medical Center, Portsmouth; Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
Hank Morris indicated about $250,000 had been donated in time and services to put the event together. Proceeds of the events (the reenactment was free to the public) are being used to continue restoration of the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth. The Stonewall Camp #380 group is further funding the restoration by selling reprints of the 1892 book of John W. H. Porter (son of the constructor of the CSS Virginia), History of Norfolk County, 1861-1865.
There was extensive media coverage of this festival. Two separate half-hour TV shows aired four times daily each for two weeks publicizing the event and news broadcasts covered the events. There were numerous newspaper articles in the Virginian-Pilot, Portsmouth Times and Ports Cities Concerns. Some of the Virginian-Pilot articles are available online. The February 15, 1997, issue described the upcoming event. The February 27th issue gave more information about the event. The March 10th issue contained an article about the event, including a color picture.
MPEG segments of the videos I took during the re-enactment:
Click on these to see the larger images. (Provided by Hank Morris.)
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