This thesis examines the Battle of Hampton Roads, 8 and 9 March 1862, the first battle of ironclads, to determine if it was a Revolution in Military Affairs. This study is an analysis of naval developments prior to March 1862, the battle, and the impact the battle had on the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy from 1862 to 1871. The battle signaled the end of the wooden warship era when the CSS Virginia destroyed two wooden warships on 8 March 1862. The USS Monitor influenced a change in naval design, which led the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy to build turreted warships, which culminated in the launching of the first modern battleship in 1871. The transformation from sailing and steam ships with broadside armament to steam-powered turret ships led to a reduction in the size of the crews and the acceptance of engineers into the naval community. The battle led both navies to assign ironclads to their squadrons to counter ironclads of hostile nations. The battle influenced the development of tactics for fighting ironclads including ramming and coastal warfare. The Battle of Hampton Roads was a Revolution in Military Affairs and the onset of modern naval warfare.

This book examines the Battle of Hampton Roads, 8 and 9 March 1862, the first battle of ironclads, to determine if it was a Revolution in Military Affairs. This book is an analysis of naval developments prior to March 1862, the battle, and the impact the battle had on the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy from 1862 to 1871. The battle signaled the end of the wooden warship era when the CSS Virginia destroyed two wooden warships on 8 March 1862. The USS Monitor influenced a change in naval design, which led the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy to build turreted warships, which culminated in the launching of the first modern battleship in 1871. The transformation from sailing and steam ships with broadside armament to steam-powered turret ships led to a reduction in the size of the crews and the acceptance of engineers into the naval community. The battle led both navies to assign ironclads to their squadrons to counter ironclads of hostile nations. The battle influenced the development of tactics for fighting ironclads including ramming and coastal warfare. The Battle of Hampton Roads was a Revolution in Military Affairs and the onset of modern naval warfare.

The Military Revolution and Revolutions in Military Affairs updates two central debates in military history--the one surrounding the concept of military revolution, and the one on military affairs--whilst advancing original research in both fields. Only a handful of publications consider the military revolution and the RMA in tandem. This book breaks new ground conceptually and appeals to an exceptionally large and diverse readership. Comparative revisionist studies of the military revolution and RMA better enable us to comprehend the historical continuum and reveal the new RMA for what it is. And for what it is shortly to become. This book presents original contributions within the "epicentre" of the military revolution debate, the 1500s, with an emphasis on gunpowder revolution (offensively and defensively). The connections with the Revolution in Military Affairs are then made explicit by scholars, a practitioner, and an analyst, with an emphasis on airborne lethal autonomous weapons systems. This is a chronologically broad and unique methodological approach to a historical debate that begs for clarification as we enter an era where killer robots will almost certainly take from humans their monopoly on violence.

"This book takes a new look at that historic battle. The original essays, written by leading naval and Civil War scholars, explore every aspect of the battle - from the building of the warships and life aboard these "iron coffins" to tactics, strategy, and the debates about who really won the battle of Hampton Roads." "Copublished with The Mariners' Museum, this guide to the military, political, technological, and cultural dimensions of this historic battle also features a portfolio of classic lithographs, drawings, and paintings interpreting the battle, including for the first time an array of pictures of the exhumed Monitor relics."--Jacket.

When Capt. John Smith first landed his ships at Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, he must have known the military importance of the jut of land; today, it is home to Fort Story, and the location played a key role during World War II in making sure enemy ships and subs did not sail into the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and onto Norfolk, the world's largest naval base. Smith established this country's first military base when he settled in Jamestown, building a fort to protect the early colonists. That simple military presence grew exponentially and during World War II was instrumental in not only defending the homeland, but in winning the war. From the Peninsula to Southside, the Hampton Roads area is military proud. There are more than a dozen forts and bases, many of which sprung up during World War II or were greatly expanded during that time.

A detailed history of one week during the Civil War in which the American president assumed control of the nation’s military. One rainy evening in May, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln boarded the revenue cutter Miami and sailed to Fort Monroe in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There, for the first and only time in our country’s history, a sitting president assumed direct control of armed forces to launch a military campaign. In Lincoln Takes Command, author Steve Norderdetails this exciting, little-known week in Civil War history. Lincoln recognized the strategic possibilities offered by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s ongoing Peninsula Campaign and the importance of seizing Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the Gosport Navy Yard. For five days, the president spent time on sea and land, studied maps, spoke with military leaders, suggested actions, and issued direct orders to subordinate commanders. He helped set in motion many events, including the naval bombardment of a Confederate fort, the sailing of Union ships up the James River toward the enemy capital, an amphibious landing of Union soldiers followed by an overland march that expedited the capture of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and the navy yard, and the destruction of the Rebel ironclad CSS Virginia. The president returned to Washington in triumph, with some urging him to assume direct command of the nation’s field armies. The week discussed in Lincoln Takes Command has never been as heavily researched or told in such fine detail. The successes that crowned Lincoln’s short time in Hampton Roads offered him a better understanding of, and more confidence in, his ability to see what needed to be accomplished. This insight helped sustain him through the rest of the war.

On March 9, 1862 the world's first battle between two ironclad warships took place in the confined waters of Hampton Roads, Virginia. The previous day the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, impervious to her enemy's guns, had sunk two Union warships. When she re-emerged from Norfolk to complete the destruction of the Union blockading squadron the USS Monitor steamed out to meet her. The four-hour duel that ensued was a stalemate, but the Virginia had failed to break the Northern blockade of the Southern ports. Nevertheless, the battle of Hampton Roads rendered wooden warships obsolete and transformed the face of naval warfare forever. During the winter of 1861-62, Confederate engineers adapted an old wooden steam frigate, the former USS Merrimac, turning her into a steam-powered ironclad warship, capable of withstanding the fire of any warship afloat. Overnight the CSS Virginia had rendered the old wooden fleets of the world obsolete. The Federal response to this Confederate initiative was to build their own ironclad based around a twin-gun revolving turret. The USS Monitor was completed in record time and sent south from New York to counteract the threat of the Confederate Virginia. The result was one of the strangest naval battles of all time - a well-matched clash between two technically different and revolutionary warships. Hampton Roads was one of the most important naval battles in history, ushering in a new age of naval warfare and warship design. With the South unable to break the blockade which was slowly starving the Confederacy, the battle proved a decisive turning point of the war, marking as it did the end of southern hopes of re-establishing links with the outside world.