# Ancient Web: NOVA Monitor Read a Civil War Ironclad Battle Through Letters PBS NOVA's preserved Lincoln's Secret Weapon companion feature presents William Keeler's 1862 letters home from USS Monitor and explains their historical editorial source. 2026-10-08 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: NOVA Monitor Read a Civil War Ironclad Battle Through Letters](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). A Union ironclad could carry enormous naval guns and revolutionary armor. It also carried a man who desperately wanted his wife to know he was alive. [Read NOVA's Eyewitness to the Battle](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/battle.html). The page is part of PBS *NOVA*'s old **Lincoln's Secret Weapon** companion website. It presents excerpts from letters written by **William F. Keeler**, acting paymaster aboard USS *Monitor*, to his wife Anna around the ship's battle with the Confederate ironclad CSS *Virginia* at Hampton Roads on **March 9, 1862**. In the short note written after the engagement, Keeler says that the two vessels were at times so close they touched. He tells his family that the *Monitor* drove the enemy off, describes damage to the Union captain, and apologizes for the dirt and powder smoke staining his writing. The longer account begins before the battle. Keeler remembers glimpsing gunfire in the darkness, anxious waiting, the grounded USS *Minnesota*, and the confusion of a damaged fleet preparing for another attack. ## A web edition with an unusually useful source note The [companion explanation](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/battleabout.html) identifies the excerpts' actual documentary source: *Aboard the USS Monitor: 1862*, edited by Robert W. Daly and published by the United States Naval Institute in **1964**. The editors retained Keeler's period spelling and sometimes tangled syntax rather than smoothing away his voice. That matters when a nineteenth-century sailor uses *Merrimac* for the Confederate ironclad officially renamed *Virginia*. The webpage provides the editorial distinction instead of quietly correcting his words. The [second page](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/battle2.html) shifts the camera, as it were, inside the armored ship. Keeler describes men waiting in dim light, unable to see the approaching opponent, with little certainty that their unfamiliar ironclad would withstand a direct hit. PBS surrounded this primary-source feature with navigation to a tour of the *Monitor*, a steam-engine explanation, production notes, and classroom resources. It is a good illustration of how early educational websites turned a television documentary into a browsable archive. The surviving pages show an **updated May 2003** notice. They are not themselves Civil War documents, but an editorial presentation of nineteenth-century letters, with the source and limits acknowledged. [Read Keeler's account and the editors' source explanation](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/monitor/battleabout.html). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#Digital Archives](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/digital-archives/), [#Civil War](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/civil-war/), [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#maritime-history](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/maritime-history/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-nova-monitor-read-a-civil-war-ironclad-battle-through-letters/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-10-08T23:20:06+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:04:06.336417+00:00