The USS Monitor became an icon of American industrial ingenuity and strength. She redefined the relationship between men and machines in war. But beforehand, many feared she would not float. The CSS Virginia was a paradigm of Confederate strategy and execution--the brainchild of innovative, dedicated, and courageous men, but the victim of hurried de

Dwight Hughes is a public historian, author, and speaker in Civil War naval history. Lt. Cmdr. Hughes graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1967 and served 20 years aboard warships, on navy staffs, and with river forces in Vietnam. He is the author of Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862 (Savas Beatie, 2021) and a contributing author at the Emerging Civil War blog.