This video describes the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack. On March 8, 1862, the world's first ironclad ship, CSS Virginia, destroyed two wooden-hulled U.S. warships at Hampton Roads. This battle revolutionized naval warfare by proving that wooden vessels were obsolete against ironclads. The next day the Union's first ironclad—the USS Monitor—arrived and fought the Virginia to a draw, ensuring the safety of the Union blockade fleet.

The video is from the 2007 Lee and Grant Exhibition at the Virginia Historical Society and looks at Grant versus Lee, the Wilderness to Petersburg.

On March 7, 2013, Jeff Broadwater delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Why Washington Burned and How the President Survived: James Madison and the War of 1812."