Merrimack (now renamed Virginia) races from its base and tears into the Union blockading squadron, sinking two major warships and killing 256 men, at minimal damage to herself or her crew.; Nathan Hale tells the provost and hangman how the Royal Navy will become obsolete. As Abraham Lincoln works to preserve the Union, General Scott proposes his Anaconda Plan to blockade the south, but navy secretary Welles points out that the navy only has four effective ships. Confederate navy secretary Mallory gets wind of the plan, and plots to break the blockade.; When the Merrimack/Virginia renews the battle, the more-maneuverable Monitor fends it off. Both ships are battered without being put out of action, but Merrimack/Virginia is defeated in her mission of destroying more Union ships, and returns to her moorings.; Cushing seizes Fayetteville, North Carolina for a few hours, confiscating mail and two blockade runners while taking off escaping slaves. When one prize grounds during the withdrawal, Cushing fights to cover the other ships, then blows up the grounded vessel. Lincoln visits the Monitor crew, and orders an assault on Norfolk. Facing the fact that they can neither fight nor flee, the crew scuttle Merrimack/Virginia.; Cushing makes his escape with the help of a slave, after learning that he did in fact sink the Albemarle. The Union wins the war, after which Welles, Fox, Cushing, Ericsson, and Lincoln celebrate together at the White House, and toast the future of ironclads. Nathan Hale knows many more stories, so the hangman and provost decide to delay his execution just a little longer.; Finished in just over a hundred days, the Monitor races southward, almost losing herself and crew in a storm. Monitor arrives just hours too late to challenge the Merrimack/Virginia, which has devastated the Union blockading squadron. Even the daring Cushing is overwhelmed by the Confederate attack.; Welles and Fox seek designs for an ironclad warship. Based on past experience the navy is wary of John Ericsson, but with Lincoln's backing he gets the contract.; Welles and Fox buy all the ships they can find and convert them into fighting vessels; short of officers, Welles even reinstates Cushing (again). Mallory and Ericsson both drive forcefully forward constructing their ironclads.; As the Minnesota captures blockade runners, Cushing is repeatedly put aboard the captured ships as prize captain. Mallory orders the half-burned Merrimack raised and refitted, as Stringham plans an attack on Confederate forts.; Cushing tries to capture a general during a daring nighttime raid, but the general is away and he has to settle for a captain of engineers. Meanwhile the Monitor founders and sinks in a storm.; Welles and Fox plan to implement the Anaconda Plan, taking time to expel naval midshipman William Cushing for his incessant pranks. Fox sets off for the relief of Fort Sumter.; While on blockade duty, Cushing intercepts a boatload of escaped slaves, one of whom offers to lead the way to a stranded blockade runner. Cushing leads a party to burn the vessel, then fights his way back to open sea through an ambush without a single man being injured.; Cushing's approach under cover of darkness is foiled by a dog on board the Albemarle. In the midst of a fire fight he deploys the bomb, which blows up his own launch. Cushing is adrift alone in the river, not knowing what happened to his crew or whether the bomb holed the Albemarle.; Cushing convinces Welles and Ericcsson that he can sink the Confederate ironclad Albemarle by rushing it at night, then using a bomb on a stick against the unarmored portion of the hull below underwater. Cushing's men volunteer en masse for the dangerous mission.; Desperate for men, Welles reinstates William Cushing, but only as a non-commissioned officer. Welles sends officers to rescue the Union's strongest warship (the Merrimack) from a naval yard in Virgina, but as that state secedes, the local commander panics and scuttles the ship at its berth.; The Confederates start rebuilding Merrimack as an ironclad. Stringham and the Minnesota capture two Confederate forts.; The United States celebrates Monitor's victory, though Ericsson rages that if properly handled, she would have sunk Merrimack/Virginia. Mallory demands a fleet of new ironclads, but advancing Union troops force abandonment of the Norfolk navy yard.; Foxy tries to run foodstuffs into Fort Sumter, but Confederate rebels force the fort's surrender with a 34-hour bombardment. Private Daniel Hough becomes the war's first casualty as a gun explodes during the surrender. Nathan Hale reports that 620,000 more will follow him. "It's history," he reminds the hangman "-- no one gets out alive."; Cushing resumes his caricatures, and Welles again dismisses Cushing from the navy, even though his caricature of Stringham is laudatory. Stonewall has his troops tear up union railroad tracks for Mallory's ironclad.; The Naval Board loses its nerve about the unrecedented design of the Monitor, but the volcanic Ericsson drives them away.