The first Federal ironclad spends her last evening above water before foundering off the coast of North Carolina.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
The first Federal ironclad spends her last evening above water before foundering off the coast of North Carolina.
Nathaniel P. Banks receives orders assigning him to command the Federal Department of the Gulf, operating mostly in Louisiana and Texas. Banks would eventually succeed the controversial Benjamin F. Butler.
Federal army-navy forces occupy one of the most important points on the Texas coast.
A Federal naval force off the coast of Texas attempts to capture the key port city of Corpus Christi.
Confederate forces try to retake the Louisiana capital with the help of a mighty but unreliable ironclad.
U.S. officials protest the construction of a ship at Liverpool that escapes British jurisdiction and later becomes the feared commerce raider C.S.S. Alabama.