Wow factor: Hi-res views of USS Monitor will be unveiled March 7 at Battle of Hampton Roads event. The aim is to promote education, protection in a new way

Monitor has been on the sea floor163 years (NOAA/GFOE); sonar vehicle used in 2025 (Tane Casserley/NOAA)

The public will have its first opportunity March 7 to see new “groundbreaking” sonar-produced images of the USS Monitor wreck and a 3D reconstruction of what the famous Union ironclad looked like before it sank during a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C.

Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and Northrop Grumman officials will make the 10 a.m. presentation during the annual Battle of Hampton Roads event at the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Va.

About 60 people will be able to attend the program at the museum’s Explorers Theater. Those unable to attend can register here to watch the presentation online.

A Northrop Grumman unmanned underwater vehicle created scans of the December 1862 wreck site during high-resolution mapping in September 2025. The vehicle is equipped with a micro synthetic aperture sonar (µSAS) system.

A Northrop Grumman vessel deployed the technology last September (Tane Casserley/NOAA)

The system penetrated low-visibility conditions to generate extraordinary imagery of the wreck and its surrounding debris field, including detailed views of hull remains and internal structure, according the museum.

Discovered in 1973 and designated as the nation's first national marine sanctuary in 1975, USS Monitor rests nearly 240 feet below the ocean's surface.

“Along with these scans, Northrop Grumman created several new visualizations of Monitor for us to help interpret its historic legacy and its role now as a thriving reef,” sanctuary research coordinator Tane Casserley told the Picket.

The museum is hosting the daylong event remembering the March 8-9, 1862, clash between the innovative Monitor and the Confederacy’s Virginia.

Cannon damage on USS Monitor after clash with Virginia (Library of Congress)

The venue -- which houses thousands of Monitor artifacts -- said the aim is to improve interpretation and perhaps protection of the wreck, which is slow deteriorating.

Officials have been finalizing speakers for the program and have declined to release any of the sonar images ahead of the unveiling. The day’s activities (see details here) are aimed at inspiring young visitors to explore engineering, science and cutting-edge technology.

"By unveiling this new technology alongside hands-on STEM activities, we’re showing the community that history and innovation go hand-in-hand,” said Will Hoffman, director of conservation and chief conservator at the Mariners’ Museum. “These experiences provide visitors a new window into the past, enabling people to engage with USS Monitor through a different lens, and potentially, drawing in new audiences of all ages to learn about the little ship that saved the nation.”

According to a sanctuary article, all data products from the project -- including 3D models, visualizations, and animations -- will be transferred to NOAA and made available for public use, “supporting transparency, education and long-term stewardship of the site.”

Casserley said images and more details on the project will be released March 7 at the sanctuary website.

The ironclad USS Montauk sank the Rattlesnake at Fort McAllister. After delays, a 3D model of the Federal monitor is being produced for display at Georgia park

Early model of Montauk; section of blueprints (SCAD) and Professor Johnson describing its operations (Picket photo)

Jason Carter, site manager at Fort McAllister State Park in Richmond Hill, Ga., believes a model of the ironclad USS Montauk -- which prowled the waters and bombarded Confederate earthworks -- will be a cool educational tool at its visitor center.

Carter would like to see it positioned next to an old model of the CSS Nashville (Rattlesnake), a commerce raider the Montauk blew out of the water in February 1863.

Greg Johnson says completing and printing a precise 3D model of the Montauk -- one of 10 Passaic-class monitors -- will be a boon for graduate student Wilson Han, who is in his gaming class at the nearby Savannah College of Art and Design.

“A legacy piece,” Johnson says of the effort.

And Han (left), a native of China, is likewise excited by the project, which involves modern technology and a bit of old-fashioned model-making.

“I am always interested in history,” he says.

Now, five years after Johnson visited the park and met former interpretive ranger Mike Ellis, the dream of having a Montauk model is finally close to reality. Han has been working on the model design for the past couple months, using Autodesk Maya software. Han said April 1 the modeling is going well but slowly because of a busy college quarter.

The original goal of the project was to create compelling interpretive panels, a 3D ship model and film that explained the role of USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Fort McAllister.

The plan turned out to be too ambitious, given SCAD graduations and the complexity of work, which ran up against limited class time. Still, a half dozen wall panels and a schematic of the Montauk were created by SCAD students and installed in late 2022.

Work on a model stalled after that, but when I reached back out in December to Johnson, interactive design and game development professor at SCAD, he asked for contact information for park leadership (Ellis had left by then) and I connected him with Carter.

Jason Carter measures CSS Nashville exhibit to aid in model for Montauk (Picket photo)

Carter met with Johnson and Han at the park on Feb. 1 to discuss the 3D model, and I tagged along. The professor explained a previous student had made a 3D model for in-game simulation (for the film) but that aspect never came to fruition. Hence, the current effort to convert that to a printable 3D model.

Johnson stressed the work would be tedious, that Han would have to check all specifications and ensure the model was ready for printing.

“I have to be certain to do the job right,” Han told the Picket.

Accuracy is paramount, says Johnson, who located the likely paint scheme for the ironclad

“It will be down to the bolt,” he says of the reproduction.

The Nashville was trapped near this bend in the Ogeechee River (Picket photo)

Key to the whole effort – for the wall display and the model – is something Ellis found by chance several years ago.

Finding blueprints was a stroke of fortune

Ellis, now a guide and trainer for Old Towne Trolley Tours in Savannah, recalls being in a storage area at Fort McAllister in 2017. There were piles of documents and papers everywhere.

“As rangers come and go, things get lost to time,” he says.

Ellis went through some of them and found a matted long tube. Inside: A precious copy of the USS Montauk’s blueprints, manufactured in dozens of sheets.

One of numerous photos of blueprints shows turret (Courtesy Greg Johnson)

“I knew immediately what is was,” says Carter. Now the staff could upgrade the monitor exhibit, putting a facsimile of the blueprints on one wall.

Everything clicked during Johnson’s visit to the site. “Me and Greg spent a better part of the day taking photos of (the blueprints) in detail.”

They used a custom-built rig to slide dozens of sheets under a camera to obtain high resolution.

“These images were then processed, enhanced and stitched together using photo editing tools to make the panels,” Johnson says. The image could then be used for the wall, model or the film.

Showdown on the Ogeechee was one-sided

USS Montauk receives fire from Fort McAllister as it hammers the Nashville

Andy Hall, A Civil War naval expert and author, told the Picket the Passaic monitors were the first large-class of monitors and many of them served together, such as the campaign against the earthen Fort McAllister in 1863 and 1864.

The Union navy, as it continued its chokehold on Southern ports and readied for offensive operations, sent the Montauk and sisters Passaic, Patapsco and Nahant, supported by gunboats Seneca, Dawn and Wissahickon to bombard and capture Fort McAllister in January 1863.

The skipper of the Montauk was John Worden (left), famous for being the USS Monitor’s captain when it clashed with the CSS Virginia in 1862.

Capable Confederate gunners at Fort McAllister hit the ironclad 13 times in its first action, but caused little damage. A second attack on Feb. 1, 1863, found the vessel, according to histories, pounded by 48 shells. The Montauk's sister ships also took part in the action.

Its big day came on February 28. The sidewheeler Nashville, which was bottled up and hiding under the guns of Fort McAllister for protection, tried to get away from the Federal ironclads via Seven-Mile Bend on the Ogeechee River, but apparently ran aground.

The 215-foot blockade runner commanded by Lt. Thomas Harrison Baker became a sitting duck because of its lack of maneuverability and deep draft in a tight area, and the Montauk pounced.

“All the monitors were designed for littoral or riverine operations, and so drew as little water as possible,” says Hall. “Nashville was built as an ocean-going steamship, so had a fuller, deeper hull.” That proved to be a disadvantage at McAllister.

Montauk’s XV- and 11-inch Dahlgrens were able to destroy the former commerce raider.

Worden was pleased with his destruction of ‘this troublesome pest’” wrote John V. Quarstein, director emeritus of the USS Monitor Center in a blog.

“However, Montauk suffered a huge jolt when it struck a Confederate torpedo en route down the Ogeechee River. Worden’s quick thinking saved his ironclad.” (Quarstein’s new biography of Worden will be published April 15).

The Union naval attacks on Fort McAllister itself were less successful. The low-profile earthen fort could withstand the shelling and repairs could be readily made.

While the Montauk was scrapped in the early 1900s, the park grounds and museum have a large number of CSS Nashville artifacts.

USS Montauk (left) and USS Lehigh in Philadelphia in 1902 (Wikipedia)

And in this corner, weighing in at . . .

On the afternoon of my visit, Carter, Johnson and Han -- who is majoring in game development and interactive design -- met in a conference room and a museum gallery that houses the wall panels, artifacts and the CSS Nashville model.

Carter used a tape measure to get the dimensions of the Nashville display case. That was to help ensure the Montauk 3D model would be built in the proper scale (1/78).

Wilson Han and Professor Johnson are working from this paint scheme (Courtesy Steven Lund)

“This makes the USS Montauk model 30 11/16th inches or 780mm in length,” Johnson wrote in a later email. The ironclad, he says was slightly asymmetrical

Carter provided these vital statistics for the two warships:

Montauk, 200 feet long, beam 46 feet, draft 10 feet

Nashville, 215 feet long, beam 34 feet, draft 20 feet

While the monitors were mass-produced, they did undergo changes during the service, and SCAD students wanted to be sure the appearance of the Montauk matched the time it prowled off Fort McAllister.

SCAD is working from a Montauk paint scheme described in the work “Modeling Civil War Ironclad Ships” by Steven Lund and William Hathaway. 

The deck is lead gray, the turret and pilot house black with a narrow white ring, and the smokestack black with the upper one third in dark green.

To distinguish them, all 10 Passaic ironclads had some color variations.

Sources for such information on paint schemes are difficult to find, says model maker and writer Devin J. Poore.

“Black is very popular, (while) gray and white were used in really hot areas.”

3D printing is not for the faint of heart

Converting an item intended for a game to a 3D printable object requires numerous revisions.

The former are designed with much higher resolution so they can be used in interactive entertainment. Former SCAD student Collin Drilling created the original image of the USS Montauk. It had about 10,000 “holes;” he worked from May and Zbrush software.

Han’s task was to bring down the resolution and fine tune the details. Johnson had worked on the turret, and his student used that as a guide.

A version of the Montauk model before Han's work to modify it for printing (Courtesy SCAD)

Preparing the model for 3D printing is one thing, but ending up with a worthy final product is another. Lots of things can go wrong in printing – and often do, the SCAD team says. Plastic can shrink during the process, the printer footing may be off and a misfeed can occur.

The printer is like a dot matrix and the artist must determine how many pieces he should make for the ironclad model and figure in joints for assembly. While Han wants to keep it to perhaps one to three pieces, some items require more, says Johnson.

Poore (photo below) told the Picket the quality of any model, handmade or 3D designed and printed, depends on the skill of the modeler.

“3D models come off the printer needing sanding, priming, assembly, etc. Depending on how much work you put into the process depends on the result. There are certain benefits that 3D printing can have over hand making, such as pretty much guaranteed right angles and symmetry, but then again you have to worry about how to actually print a piece so that it comes out cleanly, and so that it won't warp in the future,” he says.

This project is a mix of newer and old technology. While the printing will produce the frame of the ship, finer pieces such as chains and rigging will need to come for a model kit or the like.

And the painting is definitely old school; Johnson said he expects to assist with that.

Passaics were primo, but had limitations

For Fort McAllister, the Montauk model will help further its education of visitors on the fort and various Federal attempts to subdue it.

Lund said the innovation and quality of the Passaic class made for the best monitors.

“Although two of the 10 produced were lost, some of them soldiered on into the 20^th century. At least two were recommissioned to serve as harbor defense vessels in the Spanish-American War. One of them, the USS Camanche, guarded the San Francisco Bay during that conflict. She was sold for scrap in 1908 and her hull functioned as a coal barge as late as WW II.”

A model of the U.S.S. Carondelt being made for 3D printing (Courtesy Devin J. Poore)

Poore says the Passaic monitors were a stepping stone in warship development but were underutilized and not appropriate for most situations they encountered..

“For the work needed on the Atlantic coast, i.e. reducing forts, they weren't the best candidates. They were built to fight Confederate ironclads, and simply didn't see much action in that regard, due to the limited number of Confederate opponents.”

Poore is in the process of making his first full-blown printed ironclad, the city-class U.S.S. Carondelet. The vessel had notable service in the Western Theater.

Devin J. Poore's model of the USS Weehawken (Courtesy of the creator)

Gettysburg unveils bronze markers that feature braille, 3D landscapes. The idea came from a giant map that has aided park guides for generations.

New tactile marker at Virginia Memorial includes braille (click to enlarge, GNMP)

Three new Gettysburg National Military Park markers – featuring landscape elevations that visitors are encouraged to touch – were inspired by a massive topographic map created more than a century ago and on display at the park’s visitor center.

Park officials on Friday said two bronze relief tactile tables have been installed at key tour spots and another is on the way. The three-dimensional tables feature braille and raised lettering, making them the first such additions to the park.

“Visitors will now have access to better understand the landscape across which the battle was fought and how terrain influenced the movements of the two armies at Gettysburg in July of 1863,” the park said in a news release.

One table is on the plaza at the Virginia Memorial (Auto Tour Spot 5, photo at left) and other at the National Cemetery parking lot (Auto Tour Spot 16). Another is coming soon to the Eternal Light Peace Memorial (Auto Tour Spot 2).

Gettysburg spokesman Jason Martz told the Picket in an email that visitors who are visually impaired can read them by touching the table and its key. “The raised lettering, along with the braille, allow those with visual impairments to gain a better appreciation for the park landscape,” he wrote.

Martz said the idea for the three tables was based on a giant relief map of the battlefield produced by Emmor B. Cope, an engineer who was at the battle and returned a few months later to help survey the ground.

Cope was instrumental in the creation of numerous battlefield monuments and features and was the park’s first superintendent.

His bronze relief map -- 12.5 feet by 9.5 feet and 4 inches deep – is considered an indispensable tool for historians of the early battlefield, according to the Gettysburg Daily website.

It was displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. It includes tiny buildings and avenues that were built after the war. The map created by Cope (right) was laid flat at St. Louis and at the old Cyclorama building at Gettysburg; it is now propped vertically against a wall near the bookstore at the Gettysburg visitor center.

Park ranger Troy Harman, in a 2021 video posted on Facebook, explained why he considers the incredibly detailed Cope map to be the most important artifact at Gettysburg.

“It has always fascinated me and I have relied on it heavily in doing programs on the battlefield because it is so meticulous in its design and its precision of the Gettysburg battlefield.”

Since the Cope map caught a moment in time – when Cope and others surveyed the battlefield soon after the battle -- historians and others can turn to it to see what the area looked like before development and park features altered the landscape.

The behemoth Cope relief map in the visitor center (GNMP)

“If you want to see what the ground was originally like, come back to this map,” Harman said. “The ground is pristine, as it looked like at the time of the battle.”

Speaking of the much smaller tactile tables, Martz told the Picket the elevations were taken from existing GIS maps and further refined by utilizing historical information from the Cope map and others made by those working for Maj. Gen. Gouverneur Warren, chief engineer for the Army of the Potomac.

The three tables were created by Pannier Graphics and cast at an American Bronze foundry.

The creation of the tactile tables is part of a larger project to update interpretive signage throughout the park, officials said.

New tactile table in parking area of Gettysburg national cemetery (GNMP)

USS Montauk, other monitors get bigger story at Fort McAllister in panels created by gaming and interactive design students in Savannah

Wall panels at the museum at Fort McAllister (Picket photos)

Students at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) dreamed big in a project they hoped would add some pizzazz for visitors to Georgia’s Fort McAllister State Historic Park in nearby Richmond Hill, Ga.

Their goal was to create compelling interpretive panels, a 3D ship model and film that explained the role of USS Montauk and other innovative Federal monitors in the siege of Confederate outposts on the Atlantic Ocean, specifically Fort McAllister.

The plan turned out to be too ambitious, given graduations and the complexity of work that ran up against limited class time. Still, a half dozen panels were installed late last year in an exhibit dedicated to the clashes between Federal ships, the fort and the Rebel raider CSS Nashville, which was sunk by USS Montauk near the fort in 1863. I paid a visit to the site a couple weeks back.

The new panels in the park museum cover these topics: Civil War monitors, the Passaic class of monitors, armament, ironclads versus an earthen fort, commanders of Confederate and Union vessels and what happened to the Montauk and the others at Fort McAllister after the fighting. Near the panels are enlarged blueprints of the USS Montauk.

The panels feature photographs, drawings and illustrations. Park officials created a dock scene (left) with cotton bales to increase the effect.

The Picket, which first wrote about the SCAD project in March 2022, recently contacted Greg Johnson, interactive design and game development professor at SCAD, to get his perspective on the endeavor. The responses have been edited. 

Q. Were you pleased with how the panels worked out? How do they complement the rest of the exhibit on the monitors and the Nashville?

Greg Adams: Yes, I was pleased by how that portion of the project turned out. The new panels do a much better job of teaching the public about the fort and the historic events there than the previous displays did.

Q. What are the key takeaways on all the work, planning and production to create the panels? Was it harder than the team first thought?

Greg Adams (right): It was much harder than the team first thought, mainly on a time management level. Partly this was due to classes being only 10 weeks long. Partly due to students graduating from SCAD. Partly it was due to simply trying to do too much in too short of a time. I was very pleased by the persistence of the student teams who worked on the wall panels. That group of students truly went above and beyond the expectations of the class.

Q. What skills from this project will most benefit your former students in the years ahead?

Greg Adams: The most beneficial thing was the chance the students got to work on a professional project with such a fine institution. The project really demonstrated to all of my students how they can apply their skills in ways they had never considered before.

Q. The large blueprint/sketch and top view of the Montauk, both on the wall near the panels. How specifically did you and your team produce those?

Greg Adams: That was created by photo documenting the blueprints at a high resolution. We used a custom-built camera rig to enable us to slide the blueprints underneath a high-end camera. These images were then processed, enhanced and stitched together using photo editing tools to make the panels.

Renderings of USS Montauk and other items meant for film (Courtesy of SCAD)

Q. Is the Montauk 3D model still in production? I know you expected it to be completed by now. Why has it not been finished?

Greg Adams: That part of the production is paused. The student(s) responsible for making the model graduated and are now working full time and no longer have the time to work on the project. While the model got quite far along, it remains unfinished. If the museum is interested, that portion of the project may yet be able to be completed, but it would require an investment in a new group of students.

Q. Same for the film. Will that happen at some point?

Greg Adams: Unfortunately, the film production crew did not get very far and the students simply ran out of time. While a number of wonderful assets, such as the CSS Rattlesnake, were built, the film itself was nowhere near finished by the end of the class at which point these students graduated. 

Q. Any other thoughts?

Greg Adams: Overall, the results were good. The students got the most critical elements, the wall panels that the museum needed, produced and these have been installed at the museum.

The whole project was a wonderful learning experience for all of the students involved and everyone greatly enjoyed working with the museum on the project. I am very pleased that SCAD was able to help the museum create a new display.  

(Civil War Picket photos)

New 3D experience showcases Gettysburg landmarks as you've never seen them. Virtual tours of homes are 'up-close and personal'

Virtual tour of two-room home of Lydia Leister (NPS images)

Whether Covid-19 or distance is keeping you away from Gettysburg, park officials hope you take in virtual tours of landmarks – most recently, two homes that were riddled by gunfire during the battle and another where President Abraham Lincoln put the finishing touches on his famous address.

Gettysburg National Military Park recently launched a page that features three sites related to the Civil War and the house and show barn at Eisenhower National Historic Site.

“We are thrilled to be able to bring these 3D tours to our visitors. Thanks to this new technology, these historic buildings can be experienced and enjoyed by all our visitors at any time,” Gettysburg Superintendent Steven D. Sims said in a statement. “These amazing tours put the visitor in control of an up-close and personal experience with the stories of each of these structures.” 

Each page has a virtual walk-through of the structure and a second smaller image that provides audio. Viewers can choose which floor to look at, obtain a 3D cutaway image of the entire structure and view floor plans. The tours are available for home computers, smartphones or virtual reality headsets, park officials said.

Here are details on the three homes that date to the July 1863 battle in southern Pennsylvania, as provided by the park. Click each name for a link.

Adam Brian (Bryan) farm (above): The free black man lived on this 12-acre farm with his wife, Elizabeth, and two children. He purchased the land in 1857, grew wheat, barley and hay, and tended a small apple and peach orchard. Afraid of being captured and sold into slavery, Brian and his family left their home when Confederate troops entered Pennsylvania. Following the battle, they returned to find their home riddled with bullet holes, windows smashed, and furniture thrown about the yard. The crops and orchard were ruined, and their farm fields a graveyard for hastily buried soldiers. Brian repaired his home, replaced his fences, and farmed his land until 1869, when he moved to town and worked at a local hotel. “Stand at the southern facing window of the Abraham Brian house and ponder what it must have meant to be an African American citizen of Gettysburg on the eve of the battle," the NPS says.

Lydia Leister house (above): Union Maj. Gen. George G. Meade made the two-room home headquarters during the battle.Late in the evening of July 2, Meade held a council of war in this house to decide if the army should stay and hold their hard-fought high ground or abandon their position.The artillery bombardment prior to Pickett's Charge on July 3 caused considerable damage to the house.

Model of wartime Gettysburg at Wills house

David Wills (left) home: The lawyer’s residence was the center of the clean-up process after the battle and where Lincoln finalized his Gettysburg Address, the speech that transformed the battlefield from a place of death and devastation to the symbol of our nation's "new birth of freedom." The house is now a museum with six galleries.  During the battle, citizens huddled in its cellar. It became a temporary hospital.

It currently is closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Network will show the Civil War in 3D

A new 3D network is developing a four-part series about the Civil War that will air this fall. According to the company's press release, the program will include period reenactments shot in 3D, combined with digitized archival stereoscopic still photos that were taken during that period of time. • Article