The CSS Nuese was one of 22 ironclads commissioned by the Confederacy. The 158-foot vessel served a short and undistinguished career before running aground near Kinston, North Carolina. The crew of the Nuese burned the ship in 1865 to prevent her falling into the hands of the Union. The remains of the ship were raised in 1963 and are on display in Kinston at the CSS Neuse & Governor Caswell Memorial North Carolina Historic Site.
The Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia is home to the USS Monitor Center. The Monitor foundered in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1862. While the hull of the ship, designated a National Historic Landmark, still rests on the ocean floor, her propeller, anchor, engine and cannon have been recovered and are on display at the museum. The National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus, Georgia is home to the remains of the CSS Jackson. The 225-foot vessel never had a chance to fight as she was still unfinished when captured by the Union Army, torched and set adrift.
The Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (MMMBT), completed in 1992, connects I-64 with I-264 in Chesapeake. The structure includes 3.2 miles of twin trestles and a 4800 foot tunnel. The structure passes within a mile of where the first clash in history between ironclads took place in 1862. The battle proved inconclusive but demonstrated that armored ships were the future of naval combat. Every day thousands of drivers and passengers are reminded of that historic battle as they cross the MMMBT.
Several National Park Service units memorialize the historical significance of the ironclads. The John Ericsson Memorial in the District of Columbia celebrates the contribution of Swedish-born engineer John Ericsson, designer of the ironclad USS Monitor. Visitors to the USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum in Vicksburg, Mississippi can view many ironclad artifacts and the relatively intact remains of the USS Cairo. The Cairo was sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo in 1862. The remains of the ship were pulled from the Mississippi River in the early 1960s.
