‘A BOMB PROOF FIGHT’
George M. Newton, a sailor aboard USS Minnesota, had a spectacular and dangerous view of the revolutionary Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8-9, 1862, which pitted CSS Virginia against the USS Monitor. His vessel was one of the three Union blockaders Virginia set its sights on the morning of the 8th, and it was the only one to survive. Newton watched as Virginia—constructed in Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Va., upon the iron hull of the former USS Merrimac—rammed and destroyed Cumberland, and then set Congress ablaze and forced it to surrender. That night, as Congress’ flames illuminated the Roads, Newton saw Monitor arrive to contest the Confederate ironclad. His vivid letter recounting the seminal two-day engagement is a rare find in 2019.
George M. Newton was born in Grafton, Mass., on October 14, 1839. A brick mason who stood 5-foot-10½-inches tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair, Newton enlisted in the U.S. Navy on April 11, 1861, to serve aboard Minnesota. That same day he sent a letter to his parents, telling them, “I had made up my mind at the first talk of war that I should go south Ether as a volanter or on board a man of war knowing or thinking that they would call for Volanteres for they have in others States I concluted that I had rather go on the water than on land.” He shipped as a landsman, or ordinary seaman, “performing what duty they think I am best fitted for on Board.”
By summer, Newton was on duty in Hampton Roads, Va. He performed various tasks aboard and often wrote home about the sites and events he witnessed. The
