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When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, the US Navy base at Norfolk was destroyed rather than let it fall into Confederate hands. This included the steam cruiser USS Merrimack, which was burned and sunk. Confederate salvage crews raised the wreck and found that its hull and engines were intact. Stephen Mallory, the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, decided to rebuild it as one of the world's first ironclads; it was renamed CSS Virginia.
The Virginia was built on the Merrimack's hull, but above the waterline was a new ship. A casemate of four-inch iron plate backed by two feet of thick oak was built over the top of the old main deck, and the stern and bow rebuilt to be partially submerged. It was armed with a mix of whatever artillery the Confederate Navy could find, including Brooke rifled cannon and Dahlgren smoothbores. The Virginia would have an impressive broadside, but Mallory was aware that the Union was also building ironclads, which would be impervious to the Virginia's cannon. Therefore, a ram was added to the bow to strike a ship underwater. The thick armor would in turn make the Virginia virtually unstoppable, but the ship had one major weakness. The Merrimack's engines were used on the Virginia, and these were damaged by saltwater and were simply not powerful enough to deal with the added weight of armor. As a result, the Virginia's top speed was abysmal, and its turning radius took 45 minutes to complete.
Nonetheless, when the Virginia entered combat for the first time on 8 March 1862, the effects were devastating. The Union Navy suffered the loss of two cruisers, USS Cumberland and USS Congress, while USS Minnesota was damaged and driven into shallow water. Slightly damaged, Captain Franklin Buchanan, himself wounded in the battle, ordered the Virginia to retire for the day; it would finish off the Minnesota the next day. On 9 March, the Virginia stood out into Hampton Roads to finish the job, but found itself engaged with the Union's first ironclad: the purpose built, faster, and more advanced USS Monitor. Over the next few hours, both sides landed shot after shot--to no avail. The two ships' cannon were not strong enough to do significant damage to the other, and any attempt to ram the Monitor failed, as the Union ship could easily evade the slow Virginia. The Virginia's acting captain, Lieutenant Catesby Jones, broke off the action, as the falling tide could leave the Virginia stuck in hostile waters.
Though the Battle of Hampton Roads was a draw, it changed history: wooden ships were now obsolete. Future ships would be built of armored iron and steel, and there would be many ironclads that would follow in the Virginia's wake.
Though the Confederates attempted over the next few weeks to reengage the Monitor and its reinforcements, the Union saw no reason to do so, merely to maintain the blockade. With the Union Army of the Potomac advancing up the James River Peninsula, the Virginia was trapped: it could not remain at Norfolk, but was too deep-draft to get up the James River. On 10 May 1862, Jones scuttled the Virginia by blowing up its magazine. Parts of the ship remain today in museums.
Dad built this old kit, which came in a two-ship set with the Monitor. The dimensions are somewhat off, as the model designers drew on inaccurate postwar blueprints. Nonetheless, it is basically accurate, and shows off the Virginia's appearance as it would've been during the fateful Battle of Hampton Roads.
Captura de pantalla del 17-10-2009 viendo que la nueva web www.w3c.org no pasa su propio validador CSS
CSS performs Aug. 1, 2008, at Lollapalooza day one in Chicago. More photos: www.undergroundbee.com/2008/08/01css/index.htm
Note the 'spar torpedo', basically a large blackpowder charge on a long pole. It seems unlikely that this would have been effective, unless the target was another slow, hard-to-steer ironclad.
1:48 scale model built in 1984 by P. C. Coker.
Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Norfolk, VA.
One of the guns from the CSS Virginia, aka Merrimac. This gun was in action against the Union ships Cumberland and Congress off Newport News, Virginia, on March 8th, 1862. The chase of the gun was shot off during this engagement.
Fredericksburg, VA
Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. If you wish to use this image, please, contact me through flickrmail or at vicenc.feliu@gmail.com. © All rights reserved...
CSS volta aos palcos brasileiros e agita público na Tenda Oi Novo Som
Foto: Sylvio Fagundes - flickr.com/j_sylvio
CSS volta aos palcos brasileiros e agita público na Tenda Oi Novo Som
Foto: Sylvio Fagundes - flickr.com/j_sylvio
blog.onthewings.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/css-experi...
A series of CSS-only experiments.
See blog.onthewings.net/2009/11/24/css-only-experiements/ for more info.
Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad 201 at Michigan City, Indiana on July 12, 1982, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Number 201 was built by Pullman Car and Manufacturing in 1927 (along with #'s 202-210) as a 60 foot control trailer and included a Pullman-type smoking compartment. During 1946 number 201 was lengthened to 77 foot by splicing a 17 foot section in the middle.
Replica of the Confederate ironclad Albemarle, which was sunk by Union Lt. William B. Cushing while docked in the Roanoke River in Plymouth, N.C., on Oct. 27, 1864.
This is a video showing my CSS Infograph in action, using Safari 3.1. Read the post for all the details!
The CSS Chattahoochee was a gunboat built downriver from Columbus, Georgia for Confederate States Navy service. Commissioned in January 1863, it was brought near Columbus in April, 1865, and scuttled to prevent its capture. Its remains were rediscovered in 1963 and brought to this museum.
At the National Civil War Naval Museum, Columbus, Georgia. I visited this place on May 11, 2016.