Aftermath

11:00 a.m. President Abraham Lincoln visits the wounded Lt. Worden at the Washington, D.C. home of Lt. Henry H. Wise. Lincoln tells Worden, 'You have done me more honor, sir, than I can ever do to you.'

March 11: Lt. Robert Dabney Minor advises Lt. John Mercer Brooke that he deserves 'the gratitude and thanks of the Confederacy for the plan of the now celebrated Virginia' Assistant Engineer Charles Schroeder detailed to the C.S.S. Virginia.

March 13: The Rip-Raps Battery (Fort Calhoun) is renamed in honor of Major General John Ellis Wool in tribute to Wool's calming presence on March 8, 1862.

March 17: Major General George B. McClellan begins transferring his Army of the Potomac to Fort Monroe. Eventually, 389 vessels will deliver 121,500 men, 14,592 animals, 1,224 vehicles, 44 artillery batteries, 'and the enormous quantity of equipage required for an army of such magnitude.'

Chief Engineer Alban Stimers completes repairs to the Monitor's pilothouse.
Southside Artillery, commanded by Captain Augustus Hermann Drewry assigned to Drewry's Bluff.

March 20: President Jefferson Davis responded to questions about the riverine defense of Richmond noting that the 'position at Drewry's Bluff, seven or eight miles below Richmond was chosen to obstruct the river against such vessels as the Monitor. The work is being rapidly completed. Either Fort Powhatan or Kennan's Marsh, if found to be the proper positions, will be fortified and obstructed as at Drewery's Bluff, to prevent the ascent of the river by ironclad vessels. Blocking the channel where sufficiently narrow by strong lines of obstructions, filling it with submersive batteries and flanking the obstructions by well-protected batteries of the heaviest guns, seem to offer the best and speediest changes of protection with the means at our disposal."

April 4: C.S.S. Virginia leaves dry dock following significant repairs and improvements including the mounting of a twelve foot long, steel-tipped ram.

Union forces begin their march up the Peninsula.
Minor skirmishing at Big Bethel, Langhorne's (Causey's) Mill and Young's Mill.
Union occupy Young's Mill fortifications.

Major General John Bankhead Magruder's 13,000-man army defends a defensive line reaching 12 miles across the Peninsula from Yorktown to Mulberry Island Point.

Chief Engineer of the Army of the Potomac Brigadier General John Gross Barnard declares the Warwick-Yorktown Line 'one of the most extensive known to modern times.'

'The assuming and maintaining of the line by Magruder was one of the boldest exploits ever performed by a military commander,' wrote Confederate general Jubal Early. Magruder's James River flank was secured by the C.S.S. Virginia.

Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough was so intimidated by the presence of the C.S.S. Virginia that he refused to use naval forces to attack the Confederate batteries defending the York River at Gloucester Point and Yorktown.

April 8: General Robert E. Lee, Military Advisor to President Jefferson Davis, asks Secretary of the Navy Stephen Russell Mallory to order the Virginia to strike the Union transports in the York River.

April 11: Union forces capture Fort Pulaski on Cockspur Island. The fort defended the approaches to Savannah, Georgia. The brick fortifications was devastated by heavy rifled artillery.

6:00 a.m. Tattnall moves the C.S.S. Virginia to Sewell's Point.
7:10 a.m. C.S.S. Virginia enters Hampton Roads.
The U.S.S. Monitor refuses to engage the Virginia.
4:00 p.m. C.S.S. Virginia re-enters the Elizabeth River.

April 18: Confederate gunboats, C.S.S. Teaser, C.S.S. Raleigh, and C.S.S. Jamestown, were sent up the James River to support the Confederate right flank on Mulberry Island.

April 24: Commander Charles Flusser's squadron, including U.S.S. Lockwood, U.S.S. Whitehead, and U.S.S. Putnam, blocked the mouth of the Chesapeake & Albemarle Canal near Elizabeth City, North Carolina by sinking obstructions in the lock.

Secretary of the Navy Stephen Russell Mallory orders all moveable equipment to be sent from Gosport Navy Yard to Richmond, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina.

5:00 p.m. Confederates forced to abandon the Williamsburg Line. During the evening, the C.S.S. Jamestown tows a brig containing heavy guns and ordnance supplies intended for the C.S.S. Richmond to Richmond.

The Richmond is towed to the Rocketts Navy Yard by the C.S.S. Patrick Henry.

May 6: President Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by Brigadier General Egbert L. Viele, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Pl Chase, and Edwin M. Stanton, arrived during the evening at Fort Monroe's Engineer's Wharf on board the U.S.R.S. cutter Miami. The President has been invited to Fort Monroe by General Wool in conjunction with Wool's desire to strike against Norfolk.

Monitor's Acting Assistant Paymaster William Keeler noted that the Virginia 'again made her appearance and another just after dinner while she was in status quo under Craney Island, apparently chewing the bitter end of reflection and ruminating sorrowfully upon the future. She remained there smoking, reflecting, and ruminating till nearly sunset, when she slowly crawled off nearly concealed in a huge murky cloud of her own emission, black and repulsive as the perjured hearts of her traitorous crew. The water hisses and boils with indignation as like some huge shiny reptile she slowly emerges from her loathsome lair with the morning light, vainly seeking with glairing [sic] eyes some mode of escape through her meshes of the net which she feels is daily closing her in. Behind her she already hears the hounds of the hunter and before are the ever watchful guards whom it is certain death to pass. We remain in the same position we have occupied since the fight a sort of advance guard for the fleet.'

May 8: Commander Rodgers of the U.S.S. Galena, accompanied by the U.S.S. Aroostook and U.S.S. Port Royal, steams into the James River and begins the bombardment of Fort Boykin on Burwell's Bay.

The U.S.S. Monitor and the iron hulled U.S.R.S. Naugatuck (Steven's Battery), supported by the U.S.S. Susquehanna, U.S.S. San Jacinto, U.S.S. Dacotah and U.S.S. Seminole, began shelling the Sewell's Point Battery.

The C.S.S. Virginia leaves Gosport Navy Yard and steams against the Union naval forces. The Monitor and other Federal warships retreat beyond the Rip Raps.

May 9: 2:00 p.m. 6,000 Union troops are loaded on canal boats to be ferried across the Chesapeake Bay to Ocean View. The first wave of Union soldiers commanded by Brigadier General Max Weber and the second by Brigadier General Joseph King Fenno Mansfield. Gen. Wool was in overall command.

4:00 p.m. Confederates hold a Council of War chaired by Flag Officer George N. Hollins concerning Norfolk's fate.

The Confederate army asked for the C.S.S. Virginia to stay at Craney Island for 10 days to cover the Confederate retreat from Norfolk and Portsmouth.

6:00 p.m. The U.S.S. Galena reaches Jamestown Island.

11:00 a.m. Union squadron, including U.S.S. Monitor, U.S.S. Galena, U.S.R.S. Naugatuck, U.S.S. Port Royal, and U.S.S. Aroostock, forced to retreat back down the James River.

June 29: Battle of Savage Station, Virginia. Lieutenant John Mercer Brooke and Lieutenant Robert Dabney Minor command an armored railroad gun (7-inch Brooke rifle) during this battle.

July 1: Last engagement of the Seven Days Battles, the Battle of Malvern Hill, is fought. U.S.S. Monitor provides artillery support for the retreating Union army.