Clash of the Ironclads!

From Wired.com:

March 9, 1862: Ironclads

By Tony Long
02:00 AM Mar, 09, 2007

1862: Civil War ironclads stage the first sea battle in naval history between armor-plated vessels.

The battle took place at Hampton Roads, Virginia, where a day earlier the CSS Virginia (known popularly as the Merrimack, her name when she had been a frigate in the pre-war U.S. fleet) savaged the Union blockade squadron anchored there. The Union guns proved ineffective against the armor plating protecting the Confederate marauder, allowing the ironclad to move in close and even ram and sink a ship. The Virginia was returning at daybreak to finish off the Union fleet when the ungainly looking USS Monitor showed up to engage it.

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