U.S.S. Monitor Historical Marker - Nashua, NH
N 42° 45.501 W 071° 27.672
19T E 298602 N 4736918
Although far from the site of the Battle of Hampton Roads, people from Nashua working near this location built components of one of America's most famous warships.
Waymark Code: WM8FHG
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 03/26/2010
Views: 12
When work on the U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship (the USS Monitor) was commissioned in 1861, workers at the Nashua Iron and Steel Works (once located in what is now a parking lot located behind this marker) were called upon to forge the iron port stoppers (the large swinging plates that covered the gun openings when the guns were not in use).
This unusual and much overlooked historic marker is a bronze relief tablet that includes an etched image of the Monitor. The text on the marker contains several inaccuracies - they were later corrected with attached plates.
The text of the marker reads:
Near this spot were forged the port stoppers used in the turret of the "Monitor" which defeated the "Merrimac" at Hampton Roads, March 9th 1862. This was one of Nashua's contributions toward the winning of the Civil War.
The tablet was erected by the city of Nashua on May 30, 1931. The tablet also appears on the Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures list (
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