Shackford Head State Park

USS Minnesota, survived the Civil War battle of the ironclads of the coast of Virginia by the timely arrival of the USS Monitor. A sailing/steam frigate, she was launched in 1855 at the Washington Navy Yard and commissioned eighteen months later. She was decommissioned some five years later, then, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, returned to service as the flagship of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

During the first day of the Battle of Hampton Roads, Minnesota ran aground, and the following battle badly damaged her and inflicted many casualties. On the second day of the battle, USS Monitor engaged Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, allowing tugs to free Minnesota on the morning of 10 March.

Minnesota was repaired and returned to duty, and she served until 1898, when she was beached, and burned here at Shackford Head to recover her metal fittings and to clear her name for a newly-ordered battleship.