The 1862 battle between the ironclads USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (aka Merrimack) is rightly regarded as a key turning point in both the naval history of the American Civil War and world naval history. At a stroke, the wooden navies of the world were rendered obsolete by the unique craft. Despite the immense significance of the ships, however, comparatively little information is available about the six officers who commanded the Monitor during its brief history. “Ironclad Captains: The Commanding Officers of the USS Monitor” presents brief, carefully researched biographies of the six men who commanded the Monitor, ranging from John Worden, the man who fought his ship in the great battle, to John Payne Bankhead, who had to order the Monitor abandoned in sinking condition during a fierce storm off North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Although none of these officers commanded the Monitor for very long (a mere four days in the case of Thomas Oliver Selfridge), these officers were involved in most of the major naval actions of the Civil War and participated in nearly every type of activity in which the Navy was involved in that five-year period. In short, their combined story constitutes a “case history” of the Union navy, as well as providing fascinating details of a career in the 19th century American navy.
