Hampton Roads – David J. Kent

Lincoln’s Day Fretting About the Monitor and the Merrimack

By David J. Kent March 9, 2022 March 9, 2022 Abraham Lincoln

CSS Virginia Abraham Lincoln spent much of his day on March 9, 1862 fretting over the battle of the ironclads. The Union ironclad Monitor had fought to a draw with the Confederate ironclad Virginia (former the USS Merrimack) at Hampton Roads, Virginia. The Virginia had been created from the burnt out hull of the Merrimack, left behind at Gosport Navy Yard at the beginning of the war after the state of Virginia seceded. The Merrimack was converted by the Confederate Navy into a seemingly indestructible metallic monster soon to prey on Union ships. Even though the ship was now officially the Virginia, the alliteration of Monitor and Merrimack (and the end of the Confederacy) means most people refer to the ship by its former name, both then and now.*

The day’s consternation started early as Lincoln received a report from General Wool at Fortress Monroe that the Merrimack had destroyed the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress, two Navy frigates, whose wooden hulls and lack of maneuverability were no match for the ironclad behemoth the Confederacy had created. A dispatch received later in the day, described the arrival of the Monitor in time to save USS Minnesota from destruction, then engagement in a pitched battle with the Merrimack. Both vessels were damaged and there was no clear winner. Ironically, both vessels would retreat for repairs and would never fight another battle before their destruction – the Monitor in a storm and the Merrimack/Virginia by its crew.

During the day there was quite some excitement in Washington. Hampton Roads is within easy steaming distance of the Capitol and many in the city were fearful it would simply come up the Potomac and attack. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was particularly anxious about this possibility, and while there was no actual attempt to do so, the fear of an attack kept everyone busy. At one point, Lincoln took a carriage with Senator Browning to the Washington Navy Yard to confer with Commander John Dahlgren, a recurring technical advisor who Lincoln called on repeatedly. While Stanton began plans to block river traffic, word came in that relieved those fears. Lincoln followed reports from his regular perch in the War Department’s telegraph office.

Lincoln had played a major role in cutting through the mutual disgust between the Monitor‘s designer John Ericsson and the Navy Department – the Navy had scapegoated Ericsson for a cannon mishap on the USS Princeton in 1844, which resulted in the deaths of two cabinet members and nearly injuring then-President John Tyler – and he would play a major role in the destruction of the Merrimack/Virginia two months later. I’ll have more on that incident in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius.

*Sometimes the spelling leaves off the “k” to make it Merrimac, but having grown up near the Merrimack River for which it is named, the “k” stays in. To confuse matters more, there was a USS Merrimac during the Civil War, a sidewheel steamer first used by the Confederate Navy but captured and used by the United States Navy.

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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Lincoln Heads to Hampton Roads for a Peace Conference

By David J. Kent February 2, 2021 February 2, 2021 Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln Room On February 2, 1865, Abraham Lincoln headed to Hampton Roads in Virginia for a peace conference. It almost killed the 13th Amendment.

The House of Representatives was deep into debate about the 13th Amendment to end slavery in the United States. Extraordinary efforts were made on behalf of the administration to get the two-thirds majority needed for passage. It seemed like they had enough. And then someone heard that there were “peace commissioners” in Washington. Looking for a way to end the war without having to pass a constitutional amendment, many Representatives wavered. They sent a message to the President asking if any such commissioners were in town. Lincoln employed a bit of deception, replying that there were no commissioners in the city of Washington and he did not expect any. The vote squeaked through.

Of course, there were peace commissioners, but Lincoln had arranged for them to wait in Hampton Roads, Virginia, for a conference on board the steamboat River Queen. Lincoln had given a factually accurate, if incomplete, response to Congress.

Early on the morning of the 2nd, Lincoln telegraphed General Ulysses S. Grant: “Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress-Monroe, as soon a I can get there. Those gentlemen were Alexander Stephens, former U.S. Congressman from Georgia and current Vice President of the Confederacy, Assistant Secretary of War Joseph Campbell (who had been a Supreme Court Justice prior to resigning), and Robert Hunter (former U.S. Speaker of the House and Senator, then Confederate Secretary of State and Senator). The three men had come on a mission to end the war under terms that were friendly to the South.

Lincoln left Washington around 11:00 AM by special train to Annapolis, where he boarded the steamer Thomas Collyer. He arrived at Fortress Monroe in Hampton Roads late in the evening and immediately meets with Secretary of State William Seward on board the steamship River Queen.

When the five men met the next day, Lincoln was adamant that any peace agreement include reunification of all the states and the permanent end to slavery. Not surprisingly, the Confederate peace commissioners refused those conditions and returned to Richmond. Jefferson Davis, who was not present at the conference, later claimed that Lincoln had demanded “unconditional surrender.” This was false, and was Davis’s attempt to rally the Southern people to continue to fight what was already recognized as a losing battle. Lincoln, while unwavering that slavery must end, was open to compensation to the South. After returning to Washington, Lincoln did press Congress for amnesty and up to $400,000,000 in compensation. Given that the war was clearly nearing its end with a Union victory, neither Lincoln’s cabinet nor Congress was much interested in such an arrangement. No compensation or amnesty act was passed.

By late March, Lincoln would be “relaxing” at City Point near Petersburg, Virginia, where Grant had his camp. Not far down the James River from Richmond, Lincoln would stroll through the former capital of the Confederacy, abandoned the day before by Confederate leadership as the war came to a close. Lincoln would return to Washington on April 8th; Robert E. Lee would surrender Grant the next day. The war was effectively over.

Lincoln would be assassinated a week later.

[Adapted from my book Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America on the Railsplitter Podcast (Part 2)

By David J. Kent March 12, 2018 September 24, 2019 Abraham Lincoln

The popular Railsplitter Podcast continues its on-air discussion of my book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. The first four chapters were discussed on February 8th and the second four chapters on March 8th. They will discuss the rest of the book shortly, so be sure to check their website often for the final date. Also check out their catalog of great podcasts.

Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America was also the topic of my recent presentation at the Lincoln Group of DC. You can watch the C-SPAN broadcast online.

In other news, I just returned from a captivating Battle of Hampton Roads weekend in Newport News, Virginia. The Mariners’ Museum and Monitor Center were hopping with historical reenactors, a full size model of the CSS Hunley, and of course, a full size Monitor on who’s deck you can have coffee with the cook. I even got a behind the scenes tour of the Monitor conservation lab with no other than President Lincoln himself. More on that as soon as I can get my home computer working again.