It is March 1862 in eastern Virginia. A Civil War naval battle is underway in the James River,

unlike anything the world had ever witnessed in war. Two iron-clad vessels pounded away at each other.

One, the hulking CSS Virginia, formerly the Merrimack,

rising from the water like a barn roof sheathed in black iron.

The other, the Union's surreal-looking USS monitor,

low slung in the water, a round turret revolving,

a stovepipe hat riding atop a 179-foot-long floating

pancake. This epic clash, pitched and determined, ends in what is basically a draw, with so

much artillery fire bouncing off the ship's sides of armor. But years later, Herman Melville

wrote a poem about this iconic event,

accounting for the change in battle tactics and tone. Deadlier, closer, calm, mid-storm.

No passion, all went by crank, pivot, and screw, and calculations of caloric. The ringing of

those plates on plates still ringeth round the world.

The clangor of the blacksmith's fray, the Anvil Dinn, resounds this message from the fates.

Melvo, like so many others in America and throughout the world, saw a new kind of war being fought

at Hampton Roads, one based on soulless mechanization,

in which the frail human learned to serve a new master, a war of such brutality,

now fought with a passion for mechanization and manufacturing.

Music Good day. It's Don Wildman. Hope you're doing well here in the midst of summer.

Thanks as always for taking time to listen to this episode of American History Hit. Grateful you're here.

The American Civil War, 1861 to 65, is often called the first truly modern military conflict. By the mid-19th century, industrial advances had brought

new scale and lethal precision to the battlefield. Mass production, rapid transportation,

...