The question of the true victory in the near-legendary battle of 1862 between the Monitor and the Merrimac is newly approached and explored in R. W. Daly's How the Merrimac Won. The book's title indicates the author's verdict, reached after careful examination and assessment of the multiple factors involved in the incident.
The concept of Mr. Daly's book is simple. Armed with elementary definitions of military principles, the author has entered the jungle of official records with one paramount question: "What were the strategic and tactical objectives of the commanders of the two ships?" In the thousands of pages previously written on the subject, this vital question has not been fully framed or answered.
An answer was not an easy thing to find, but the search for it brings to fresh emphasis the drama of a man against a ship McClellan versus the Merrimac. In its importance, this drama overshadows, and rightly, the excitement hinging upon the Monitor's dash down from New York "... to put a stop to the Merrimac's attempt to break the blockade." The commander of the Merrimac was not attempting to break the blockade, Mr. Daly states, and the reasons for this constitute the heart of this book's study.
By her very existence, the Merrimac, properly known as the Virginia, won a strategic victory of incalculable importance before she ever fired a shot. The Monitor did nothing to diminish the Merrimac's success. Their fight was inconsequential. Although the Monitor may rightly have honors or a limited tactical victory, even this is clouded by a tragedy twenty years subsequent to the battle.
The Merrimac may possibly have been the prime reason the war did not end three years sooner than it did. She provides a classic example of the influence of seapower upon history, as dealt with by Mahan, the famous naval historian. This is the picture of her life that should be presented in the school books, instead of the present half-true legends.
As our armed services today debate the eternal question of dominant force versus the balance of forces, How the Merrimac Won has particular significance.
—from the dust jacket
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