CSS Virginia

CSS Virginia
History
Confederate States
Name	CSS Virginia
Namesake	Virginia
Ordered	July 11, 1861
Completed	March 7, 1862
Commissioned	February 17, 1862
Fate	Scuttled May 11, 1862 (36°54′25″N 76°20′37″W / 36.90694°N 76.34361°W / 36.90694; -76.34361)
General characteristics
Type	Casemate ironclad
Displacement	about 4,000 long tons (4,100 t)
Length	275 ft (83.8 m)
Beam	51 ft 2 in (15.6 m)
Draft	21 ft (6.4 m)
Installed power	1,200 ihp (890 kW)
Propulsion	1 shaft 2 Horizontal back-acting steam engines 4 boilers
Speed	5–6 knots (9.3–11.1 km/h; 5.8–6.9 mph)
Complement	about 320 officers and men
Armament	2 × 7-inch (178 mm) Brooke rifles 2 × 6.4-inch (160 mm) Brooke rifles 6 × 9-inch (229 mm) Dahlgren smoothbores 2 × 12-pounder (5 kg) howitzers
Armor	Belt: 1–3 in (25–76 mm) Deck: 1 in (25 mm) Casemate: 4 in (102 mm)

CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the razéed (cut down) original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS Merrimack. Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's USS Monitor in March 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.