Ironclads Of The Civil War :: essays research papers

IRONCLADS OF THE CIVIL WAR   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The book I read is called IRONCLADS OF THE CIVIL WAR. When you think of the Civil War you think of on land battles, but there were also many battles in the water. The Civil War introduced the Ironclads, which are huge ships made of iron with no sails and very destructive.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first built and launched ironclad was in 1855 and it was named the Merrimac. Europe just starting building ironclads and sent her to Norfolk. The Merrimac was still there when Virginia seceded from the Union in April of 1861. The Union then sank the Merrimac and set her afire but the hull of the shop and the engines settled in the bottom of the river. The Confederates found it and raised the parts out. It took 1,500 men to work on the Merrimac. It was a very slow process because there was not many supplies or tools. The Merrimac needed needed on thousand tons of iron. It was difficult to get some because there was very few iron manufacturers anywhere in the South and there was just one able to supply enough. The Merrimac got a small share of iron and then went to work. It took over a year to get this ship finished. The captain was Franklin Buchnan and he had 300 men for a crew.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most of the men were soldiers recently assigned out of artillery regiments. And there were very few sailors in the South, so most were clueless on where to go or what to do. When everything was done and she began to move it looked like the Merrimac was capable of doing what she was meant to do. The Northerners were warned about this ironclad â€Å"monster† and were waiting for this moment a long time. When the Merrimac came into view she fought the Cumberland and ended up destroying it. The shell burst into the rail and knocked down nine men of the Cumberland. In the end the Merrimac destroyed the Cumberland. But no ship in the navy ever fought as hard or as brave as the Cumberland did.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Once the word got around about the ironclad everyone started to make them. France built the Gloire and England built the Warrior. By the Civil War was a year old the navies were being complemented with ironclad. And the Union knew that they had to have an ironclad to ever beat the South Merrimac Captain John Ericisson