Early in the Civil War, two ironclad ships faced off in a battle that would change naval warfare forever. What made ironclad ...

As the rebel vessel approached, the Cumberland fired into it, but the cannon fire bounced harmlessly off the rebel ship’s ironclad hull. It was the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, and before ...

Only the hull could be used, so the Confederates set out to create a new ironclad by placing a huge casemate, a structure built to hold large guns, on top of a new deck constructed on the old hull.