UNLIKE ANYTHING THAT EVER FLOATED: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862

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The Monitor, an untried iron coffin-like ship of which the gloomiest predictions were made, met the CSS Virginia, the brainchild of innovative, dedicated, and courageous men, but the victim of hurried design, untested technology, poor planning and coordination, and a dearth of critical resources. Nevertheless, the Virginia rendered the wooden ship obsolete, threatened the strategically vital US Navy blockade, and disrupted General McClellan's plans to take Richmond.

From flaming, bloody decks of sinking ships, to the dim confines of the first rotating armored turret, to the smoky depths of a Rebel gundeck-with shells screaming, clanging, booming, and splashing all around-to the office of a worried president with his cabinet peering down the Potomac for a Rebel monster, this dramatic story unfolds through the accounts of men who lived it in.