Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Photo # NH 1896:  Damaged Dahlgren gun from CSS Virginia, photographed in 1933

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- SHIPS of the CONFEDERATE STATES --

CSS Virginia (1862-1862), ex-USS Merrimack --
Relics


This page features all our views of relics from the Confederate Navy ironclad ram Virginia, ex-USS Merrimack.

For more pictorial coverage of, or relating to, CSS Virginia, see:

  • CSS Virginia (1862-1862), ex-USS Merrimack.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 1896

    Damaged Dahlgren gun from CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack)


    Photographed at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., 27 April 1933. Several other guns, relics of the Civil War and earlier conflicts, are beyond.
    The gun is inscribed: "One of the Guns of the MERRIMAC in the action with the U.S. Frigates CUMBERLAND and CONGRESS March 8th 1862 when the chase was shot off". The lower inscription reads: "The mutilation of Trunnions &c shows the ineffectual attempts to destroy the Gun, when the U.S. abandoned the Norfolk Navy Yard, April 20th 1861".
    This gun, presumably one of Virginia's six IX-inch Dahlgren smoothbore guns, was on exhibit at Dahlgren, Virginia, in 1973.
    The Parrott gun (second from right in the row behind) is inscribed "Tug Teaser"

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 130KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 1797

    Damaged Dahlgren gun from CSS Virginia


    Halftone reproduction of a photograph, probably taken at the Washington Navy Yard, D.C., circa the late 19th or early 20th Century. Several other guns, relics of the Civil War and earlier conflicts, are beyond.
    This gun, presumably one of Virginia's six IX-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, had its muzzle shot off in Virginia's engagement with USS Cumberland and USS Congress on 8 March 1862. Its trunnions and cascabel were mutilated, though not not beyond use, by U.S. forces during the abandonment of the Norfolk Navy Yard on 20 April 1861.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 420 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 46251

    "From the Ironclad Merrimac"


    Halftone reproduction of an artwork, published in the "Richmond Magazine", 1930, depicting a purported section of the conning tower of CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack).
    The following text accompanied this illustration: "... Number 6 North Second Street live the descendants of Captain Catesby Ap Roger Jones, who commanded the Merrimac. In this house also lived that gallant soldier, Major Ap Catesby Jones, who lost an arm at Gettysburg. At the back of the house are brick walks and curved brick walls, mellowed to a patina which would delight the soul of a landscape gardener. The walls, the old brick walks, the ancient ivy, all combine in a cloistered peace. Peace now, but in this old garden lies a souvenir of war. Buried in a flower bed, is no less than a part of the conning tower of the Merrimac. Here it lies in the middle of the garden, an every day object in the life of the family, and one is shown it with merely a wave of the hand as one looks out of the window."

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 143KB; 675 x 675 pixels

     


    Note: There are many CSS Virginia relics in the collections of the Museum of the Confederacy, in Richmond, Virginia. Contact that institution for more information on these artifacts. The Museum of the Confederacy's WEB Site can be readily found via standard Internet search engines.

    For more pictorial coverage of, or relating to, CSS Virginia, see:

  • CSS Virginia (1862-1862), ex-USS Merrimack.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 23 May 2001