This piece of pine wood came from the roof of the Merrimack. It measures 6 ¼’ long x ¼” wide. A small note, written in period ink, has been glued to the side which reads, “PINE ROOF OF REBEL RAM MERRIMAC, MARCH 8^TH AND 9^TH 1862”. Wood is in very good condition, with no cracks or splinters.

USS Merrimack, was a frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship CSS Virginia was constructed during the American Civil War. The CSS Virginia then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads (also known as "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack") on March 9, 1862, in the first engagement between ironclad warships.

On the April 20, 1861, after the outbreak of the Civil War, before evacuating the Norfolk Navy Yard, the U.S. Navy burned Merrimack to the waterline and sank her to preclude capture. The Confederacy, in desperate need of ships, raised Merrimack and rebuilt her as an ironclad ram, according to a design prepared by Lt. John Mercer Brooke, CSN. Commissioned as CSS Virginia on February 17, 1862, the ironclad was the hope of the Confederacy to destroy the wooden ships in Hampton Roads, and to end the Union blockade which had already seriously impeded the Confederate war effort.    [sm]

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