As Your Humble Blogger was making his way through the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (I-664) this morning before dawn, the thought did not occur to me at all that March 9 is, after all, the anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads, known to Yankees as the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimac. In these parts, of course, the ironclad made from the hulk of the frigate Merrimac is known as the CSS Virginia.
The battle is fascinating; it’s the Agincourt of the sea. Well, it is fascinating. The Navy has Selected Original Documents, which make fine reading, but miss the forest for the trees. Having now kicked around this edge of the South a tiny bit, it’s become clear how hopeless secession was, particularly if the navy-less secessionists had no way of protecting the immense coasts and ports, particularly as they needed to maintain trade with Europe. Anyway, a bit of history on a day I would otherwise have only thought of as Vita Sackville-West’s birthday (oh, and Benito Santiago).
Thank you,
-Vardibidian.
Why did the South need to maintain trade with Europe? For that matter, why did the North need to stop secession at such terrible cost? I know almost nothing about that time period, but perhaps the South thought that the North would not go as far as they did.
Secession to be won through military victory may have been hopeless, as was Iraq’s recent effort to maintain independence through military victory. In that recent parallel, Saddam Hussein was reportedly convinced that the US would not actually invade.