Episode Notes This week in 1862... After Virginia seceded from the Union, retreating Federal forces scuttled and sank ships in Portsmouth harbor. They didn’t want the ships to fall into Confederate hands. But one did anyway. It was the USS Merrimac. Confederate forces raised it from its watery grave. When the Federal navy heard about the new Confederate threat to Union ships, they responded with their own ironclad: the USS Monitor. These two ships were on a collision course for Hampton Roads...
