Monitorvirginia
Sam Vermilyea
The Industrial Effect on Naval Warfare in the Civil War
The Civil War began during America’s industrial age. America’s cities were teeming with factories and railroads. Industry encouraged the development of new technologies. Coal powered steam engines propelled riverboats from port to port. Railroads provided quick passage and domestic trade from city to city. Factories effectively produced large quantities of goods. Industrialization provided Americans with new opportunities and experiences. As a result of this industrialization, wartime technologies also improved. Muskets were rifled, artillery pieces grew larger, and ships were coated with iron armor. Industrialization and technology were transforming warfare, and the Civil War was their catalyst. The Civil War ironclads, the Monitor and Virginia, were direct results of American industrialization. The Monitor and Virginia not only revolutionized naval warfare at Hampton Roads, but they changed the sailor’s experience in battle. Many Civil War historians have written standard accounts of the Battle of Hampton Roads. The standard accounts generally describe the battle from a new perspective, based on letters or a memoir of a different sailor. Bern Anderson’s By Sea and by River: The Naval History of the Civil War is considered the best standard account of Civil War ironclads. Anderson’s book focuses on the naval blockade in the South, and the Battle of Hampton Roads. In the 1980s, Merrit Roe Smith’s Military Enterprise and Technological Change: Perspectives on the American Experience builds upon Anderson’s book. Smith argues for the affects technological development has on human values and conflicts. Smith uses the experiences of the Monitor and Virginia’s crews to exemplify the technological affects. Most recently, Craig L. Symonds’ Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History discussed the impact industrialization had on the Civil War. Symonds argued industrialization
The Industrial Effect on Naval Warfare in the Civil War
The Civil War began during America’s industrial age. America’s cities were teeming with factories and railroads. Industry encouraged the development of new technologies. Coal powered steam engines propelled riverboats from port to port. Railroads provided quick passage and domestic trade from city to city. Factories effectively produced large quantities of goods. Industrialization provided Americans with new opportunities and experiences. As a result of this industrialization, wartime technologies also improved. Muskets were rifled, artillery pieces grew larger, and ships were coated with iron armor. Industrialization and technology were transforming warfare, and the Civil War was their catalyst. The Civil War ironclads, the Monitor and Virginia, were direct results of American industrialization. The Monitor and Virginia not only revolutionized naval warfare at Hampton Roads, but they changed the sailor’s experience in battle. Many Civil War historians have written standard accounts of the Battle of Hampton Roads. The standard accounts generally describe the battle from a new perspective, based on letters or a memoir of a different sailor. Bern Anderson’s By Sea and by River: The Naval History of the Civil War is considered the best standard account of Civil War ironclads. Anderson’s book focuses on the naval blockade in the South, and the Battle of Hampton Roads. In the 1980s, Merrit Roe Smith’s Military Enterprise and Technological Change: Perspectives on the American Experience builds upon Anderson’s book. Smith argues for the affects technological development has on human values and conflicts. Smith uses the experiences of the Monitor and Virginia’s crews to exemplify the technological affects. Most recently, Craig L. Symonds’ Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History discussed the impact industrialization had on the Civil War. Symonds argued industrialization
Bibliography: Keeler, William F. Daly: Aboard the USS Monitor. Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1964. Mindell, David A. War, Technology, and Experience aboard the USS Monitor. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000. Padfield, Peter. The Battleship Era. New York: David McKay Company, 1972. Potter, E.B. Sea Power. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1981. Smith, Merrit Roe Symonds, Craig L. Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles That Shaped American History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. -------------------------------------------- [ 3 ]. E.B. Potter, Sea Power: A Naval History (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1982), 126. [ 12 ]. Peter Padfield, The Battleship Era (New York: David McKay Company, 1972), 26. [ 30 ]. Keeler to his wife, serial letter dated March 6, 1862, in Daly, Aboard the USS Monitor, 38. [ 36 ]. Keeler to his wife, serial letter dated March 6, 1862, in Daly, Aboard the USS Monitor, 37.