Confederate Navy makes history

[Mark Wadsworth]

One reason the Monitor wasn't dammage very much besides being covered with iron was due to the fact that was not very much of the ship above the water line.

[OpnDownfall]

and, I believe the guns of the Monitor were only partially charged, in the battle with the Va.

[cw1865]

Even though the Virginia causes damage and even though the battle with the Monitor ends in what is essentially a stalement, strategically the Battle of Hampton Roads is a union victory. At the end of the day, the Virginia fails to lift the blockade, is unable to prevent McClellan's landing on the Peninsula (the fact that McClellan does little with this opportunity is besides the fact). Really the only historically significant point of interest of the battle is that it marks the obsolesence of wooden ships.

I wouldn't fully charachterize the ironclad v. wooden ships as shooting ducks in a barrel. Clearly its a mismatch, but the Congress does damage the Virginia.

Also I don't think focusing on the wooden ships to the exclusion of confronting the Monitor would've proven fruitful either, but of course that is just speculation.