ironclads

The Casco-class Monitors

Following the success of USS Monitor – the ground-breaking ironclad warship, designed by Swedish-born engineer John Ericsson, that played a central role in the US Civil War Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862 – the US Navy issued…

RIGHT A contemporary artist’s reconstruction of the bombardment of Fort Sumter by Union ironclads on 7 April 1863. Image: WikiCommons

The charge of the Iron Fleet

Charleston, 7 April 1863. It was the place where the American Civil War had started. Two years on, with a revolution in naval warfare far advanced, a fleet of Union ironclads attacked Confederate defences at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Michael Laramie describes the action.