Most new sailors in the Union Navy had no experience at sea. The Union Navy grew rapidly during the Civil War, expanding from some 9,000 officers and men in 1861 to over 118,000 by 1865. The battle was a draw, but it illustrated that the future belonged to iron and steel ships. The next day, it met its match in the USS Monitor, a Union ironclad built on the innovative design of John Ericsson. On its first day on duty, March 8, 1862, the Virginia destroyed several Union ships, but the triumph was short-lived. He built the first with machinery salvaged from the USS Merrimack, and called it CSS Virginia. The Confederacy had few ships in 1861, and Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory decided to invest in the new technology of ironclads. The battle between the ironclads CSS Virginia and USS Monitor on March 9, 1862, was a dramatic turning point in naval warfare. A second objective was to raid commerce on the high seas, destroying or stealing Union cargoes. The South’s major goal was keeping supplies moving by sea, using blockade runners that could speed past Union ships. A second objective was taking control of harbors and rivers, especially the Mississippi. Because the coastline was so long, developing an effective blockade took several years. The Union's principal goal was blockading Southern ports and choking the flow of supplies. The Union and the Confederacy had competing strategies for their navies.

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