In an obvious reaction to the appearance of Confederate ironclad ships and the success of the C.S.S. Virginia in the Hampton Roads ten days before, the governors of Pennyslvania and New Jersey, Andrew Greg Curtin and Charles Smith Olden, met at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia to discuss the strengthening of defenses along the Delaware Bay and the safeguarding of the port of Philadelphia.  In a similar response six days before, Governor Edwin D. Morgan of New York had ordered the forts in New York Harbor garrisoned. During the entire war, the Confederate fleet never acted, nor had the capability, to attack northern ports.  (By John Osborne)

In reaction to the appearance of Confederate ironclad ships and the success of the C.S.S. Virginia in the Hampton Roads the previous week, Governor Edwin D. Morgan of New York ordered the forts in New York Harbor to be garrisoned. Other responses came along the east coast, such as in Philadelphia, when New Jersey and Pennsylvania governors met six days later to discuss the defenses of the Chesapeake Bay. (By John Osborne)

The U.S.S. Monitor had arrived on the evening of the devastating Confederate attack on the blockading fleet off Newport News. Under Lieutenant John Worden, she waited the night with the stricken U.S.S. Minnesota.  In the morning, the Merrimack, rechristened as the C.S.S. Virginia, reappeared and a long cannon battle between the two revolutionary warships ensued, the first ever between ironclads.  After several hours of the engagement, with both vessels only slightly damaged, the Virginia turned for home. The two ships never met again.  (By John Osborne)

In Hampton Roads, off Norfolk, Virginia, the Confederate Navy made a powerful effort to break the Union blockade with an attack led by the newly converted armored warship Merrimack, now christened the C.S.S. Virginia.  The Virginia, under Captain Franklin Buchanan, and almost invulnerable to conventional cannon fire, led two other steamers, the Patrick Henry and the Thomas Jefferson to a comprehensive naval victory against the wooden fleet, destroying the U.S.S. Cumberland and the U.S.S. Congress, and disabling several others. (By John Osborne)

President Lincoln sent a message to Congress that recommended a joint resolution on the thorny question of ending slavery. He wrote that the federal government "ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery" and suggested economic aid to any such state "to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system."  The Congress passed a joint resolution embracing the method but the plan met with little enthusiasm in the slave states.  (By John Osborne)

The official figures for the strength of the United States armed forces at the end of 1861 indicated a total army of 660, 971 men.  The Regular Army made up 20,334 of this number, with the remaining 640,637 were Volunteers.  The U.S. Navy numbered 20,000 men in 246 warships.  (By John Osborne)

The eight hundred year Alcázar at Segovia had been used since 1764 as a training college for military cadets. The fire caused severe damage but it was not until 1881 that the government ordered it restored.  It then became once again a military academy.  Today it is one of the most popular tourist sites in Spain.  (By John Osborne)