The Merrimac and the Monitor revisits a noted Civil War (1861-1865) naval encounter that introduced the era of ironclad warships. The skirmish took place in 1862 at Hampton Roads, Virginia, where several rivers meet before flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. While protecting Union ships engaged in a blockade, the USS Monitor (at right in the painting) was attacked by the Confederate Navy’s Virginia, essentially a floating battering ram. Virginia, depicted here flying an early version of the Confederate flag, was built upon the surviving flat substructure of the Merrimac, a Union ship that had been previously burned to the waterline by Southern troops. The battle ended in a draw.