High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, built during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and steam engines of the scuttled USS Merrimack. Virginia was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union`s USS Monitor in March, 1862. The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.