A Currier and Ives lithograph of the battle between the Monitor and the Virginia. Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images As dawn broke over Hampton Roads, Virginia, on March ...

On October 12, 1861, CSS Manassas became the first ironclad to see combat at the Battle of the Head of Passes on the Mississippi River. Protected by iron or steel armor plates, ironclads held a ...

On December 31, 1862, the USS Monitor—the U.S. Navy’s first ironclad warship—sailed into a storm and sank off the coast of North Carolina. Now, more than 160 years later, experts have produced the ...