The success of USS Monitor during the Battle of Hampton Roads prompted the Union to greatly expand the construction of monitors.

Spend an action-packed day with us as we commemorate the 161st anniversary of the Battle of Hampton Roads, and experience how today’s cutting-edge technology helps bring stories of the iconic USS Monitor and its artifacts to life.

Join us for a lecture with author and historian John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center. Quarstein will give a presentation on the Confederacy's strategy to build ironclads in order to combat the superior Union navy.

Join us for a lecture with author and historian John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center. Quarstein will give a presentation on the day’s event as the Union Wooden Fleet prepared to face off against the Confederate ironclad Merrimack on March 7, 1862.

Join us for a lecture with author and historian John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center. Quarstein will give a presentation about the most successful slave revolt in US history.

John V. Quarstein gives a presentation on USS Idaho, a steam sloop that was built at Camden, New Jersey, as part of a Civil War program of large, very fast, steam cruisers and was eventually converted to a sailing storeship.

Watch our team remove USS Monitor's condenser tank to make more room in our Batten Conservation Complex!