MAY 11, 1862:
The C.S.S. VIRGINIA is stripped of her
guns, her coal, her stores, and her armor in an attempt to make her light
enough to cross the bar into the James River. But even stripped, she will not
clear the bar. Since her home base of Norfolk had fallen to the Union, the
proud and once fearsome VIRGINIA had nowhere to go. In the wee hours, her
Commander ordered her scuttled rather than fall into Union hands. The crew
fired her, and after an hour, the flames reached the magazine. The ship
exploded spectacularly and sank, a ruin.
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