01 Marine Art, The Battle of the USS Monitor and CSS Merrimack (Virginia), With Footnotes #310

Julian Oliver Davidson (1853-94)
The Battle of Hampton Roads, c. 1862

The Monitor and Merrimac: The First Fight Between Ironclads

Oil on canvas

 Library of Congress

Julian Oliver Davidson (December 27, 1853–April 30, 1894) was a 19th-century American marine artist and illustrator from Nyack, New York. He best known works of the famous naval battles of the American Civil War. Davidson's works were exhibited at the Hudson River Museum, New-York Historical Society and the National Academy of Design in the 1870s and 1880s.

Davidson began drawing at the studio of Mauritz de Haas, a Dutch-American marine painter. He was introduced to painters of the Hudson River School including Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt and Frederick Church. He stayed there for three years.

Davidson specialized in the naval battles of the United States. He best known works of the famous naval battles of the American Civil War. In 1884, he was commissioned to provide illustrations of naval scenes for the four-volume work The Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Recognized by the National Academy of Design, two of his greatest naval paintings, The Battle of Lake Champlain and The U.S. Frigate Constitution, 'Old Ironsides' Escaping From the British Fleet" were displayed at the National Academy of Design's annual art show.

The Battle of Lake Champlain (1884) hangs in the Key Bank Art Gallery in Plattsburgh, New York. He has exhibited at the Hudson River Museum, New-York Historical Society and the National Academy of Design. More on Julian Oliver Davidson

It was fought over two days, March 8–9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, in Virginia. The battle was a part of the effort of the Confederacy to break the Union blockade, which had cut off Virginia's largest cities and major industrial centers, Norfolk and Richmond, from international trade.

This battle was the first meeting in combat of ironclad warships, USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. On the first day of battle, they were opposed by several conventional, wooden-hulled ships of the Union Navy.

On that day, Virginia was able to destroy two ships of the federal flotilla, USS Congress and USS Cumberland, and was about to attack a third, USS Minnesota, which had run aground. However, the action was halted by darkness and falling tide, so Virginia retired to take care of her few wounded and repair her minimal battle damage.

Determined to complete the destruction of Minnesota, the Virginia returned the ship to the fray the next morning, March 9. During the night, however, the ironclad Monitor had arrived and had taken a position to defend Minnesota. When Virginia approached, Monitor intercepted her. The two ironclads fought for about three hours, with neither being able to inflict significant damage on the other. The duel ended indecisively, Virginia returning to her home at the Gosport Navy Yard for repairs and strengthening, and Monitor to her station defending Minnesota. The ships did not fight again, and the blockade remained in place.

The battle received worldwide attention, and it had immediate effects on navies around the world. The preeminent naval powers, Great Britain and France, halted further construction of wooden-hulled ships, and others followed suit. Although Britain and France had been engaged in an iron-clad arms race since the 1830s, the Battle of Hampton Roads signaled a new age of naval warfare had arrived for the whole world. A new type of warship, monitor, was produced on the principle of the original. The use of a small number of very heavy guns, mounted so that they could fire in all directions, was first demonstrated by Monitor but soon became standard in warships of all types. Shipbuilders also incorporated rams into the designs of warship hulls for the rest of the century. More on The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack

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