In September 2025, I had the chance to make a stop at The Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia to see their outstanding exhibits on the USS Monitor.

The Monitor was the US Navy’s revolutionary ironclad warship, remembered for its famous Civil War clash with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (the rebuilt USS Merrimack) in Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 – the first battle between ironclad ships in modern history.

I’m always hunting for ties back to Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal fields, and sure enough, I found one here.

The Monitor was powered by anthracite coal from Northeastern Pennsylvania, carrying about 80 tons when fully loaded.

When divers recovered artifacts from the wreck in the 1990s and 2000s, they also brought up chunks of anthracite that had been sitting in her coal bunkers since she went down off the coast of North Carolina on December 31, 1862.

Artifacts, including the Monitor’s famous rotating turret, are undergoing restoration and stabilization at the Museum.

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More about the US Navy and the Coal Region during the Civil War

U.S. Navy admiral: anthracite coal won the Civil War

Fuel for Union victory – An 1861 U.S. Navy contract for anthracite coal

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