CREW MEMBER  OF  FIRST  IRONCLAD,  USS  MONITOR

Few naval battles of the Civil War are as well known as the historic March 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads, the first battle between ironclad ships, the USS MONITOR and CSS VIRGINIA.  John Stocking was a MONITOR crewmember during its short life. 

MONITOR was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy and was launched January 30, 1862, after being hurriedly built in Brooklyn in only 101 days.  President Lincoln authorized the construction in response to reports that the Confederacy was building an ironclad warship, CSS VIRGINIA.  The reports proved true and on March 8, 1862, VIRGINIA engaged Union ships blocking Hampton Roads in Southeast Virginia.  CSS VIRGINIA sank the sail frigate USS CUMBERLAND by ramming her and then blasted the 50-gun USS CONGRESS onto the rocks and set her afire.  Early in the battle the steam frigate USS MINNESOTA ran aground attempting to get away from VIRGINIA’s onslaught.  MONITOR arrived after the battle at about 9 PM and the following morning, when VIRGINIA returned to finish off destroying MINNESOTA, was surprised to find MONITOR awaiting her return.  What followed was the first epic battle between irconclads as the ships fired on each other at close range from a few yards to more than a hundred and even collided with one another a reported five different times.  Both ships were constantly in motion, maintaining a circular pattern.  During the duel, which lasted almost four hours, MONITOR was struck twenty-two times and managed to fire forty-one shots from her pair of Dahlgren guns.  The battle ended in a draw as neither ship was able to sink or seriously damage the other, no deaths occurred on either side and the battle ended when both ships neared exhaustion of their ammunition and retired from the scene.  An officer aboard MONITOR later wrote: “My men and myself were perfectly black with smoke and powder.  All my underclothes were perfectly black, and my person was in the same condition.  I had been up so long, and been under such a state of excitement, that my nervous system was completely run down.  My nerves and muscles twitched as though electric shocks were continually passing through them.  I lay down and tried to sleep.  I might as well have tried to fly.”  Stocking was part of the MONITOR’s gun crew and was undoubtedly one of the crewmembers manning the two Dahlgren guns during the battle.

Following the battle, MONITOR returned north for repairs.  At the end of the year MONITOR was ordered south to support a planned Union attack on Wilmington, North Carolina.  After waiting for the weather to clear she left under tow on December 29, 1862.  The ship was unusual in almost every respect, was built with very low freeboard, had a hull sometimes called the “raft” with a large cylindrical gun turret mounted amidships and designed to present the smallest possible target to enemy gunfire.  She was designed for shallow rivers and thus highly unseaworthy in rough waters.  During the voyage, as she passed Cape Hatteras, the seas began to build and the unseaworthy MONITOR began shipping water from her many leaks as she began rolling uncontrollably.  Soon she was hit by a squall and a series of violent waves.  Attempts to stay ahead of the rising seawater failed and when water reached the fires in the engine room all power was lost.  The heavy seas caused one of the two towlines to break and it became necessary to sever the second towline as MONITOR was so unmanageable and a danger to the towing ship as well.  Volunteers were called, and Stocking and two other volunteers climbed down from the turret.  Almost immediately one of the volunteers was swept overboard and although Stocking is reported to have managed to reach lifelines, he was also soon swept off the deck by overwhelming waves thus becoming the second crewmember to drown.  The third volunteer succeeded in severing the remaining towline.  A frantic rescue effort was mounted by boats from her escorts but MONITOR soon founder on December 31, 1862, and sank with a loss of 16 crewmembers. 

Historical records report that John Stocking was born on August 18, 1830, in Binghamton, New York, and given the name Wells Wentz at birth.  He reportedly enlisted in the Union Navy in 1858.  A common practice at the time for men enlisting in the Navy in case they decided to desert, Wentz served under an assumed name, John Stocking, a name he reportedly picked from a Reverend who lived in his home town.  He was assigned to the sailing frigate USS SABINE, one of the first ships to see action in the Civil War.  In early 1862 a number of crewmembers from SABINE, including Stocking, volunteered for duty on the newly constructed USS MONITOR where his rate was Boatswain’s Mate.  

In 1884 a descendent wrote:

“Wells Wentz, born August 18, 1830.  This member of the family took a very active part in crushing the late rebellion.  In the engagement between the ironclads, VIRGINIA and MONITOR, he stood at his post as gunner on the latter (under the nome de plume of John Stocking) until the VIRGINIA’s batteries were silenced.  He continued with the MONITOR until her memorable fatal passage and wreck off Cape Hatteras, where, faithful to his post, he shared with her the same watery grave.”

John H. Wentz (1792-1870)

None of the bodies of the 16 men who died in the MONITOR sinking were recovered until two skeletons were discovered in MONITOR’s turret when she was partially raised during salvage operations in 2002.  Anthropologists were unable to positively identify the two men but were able to rule out the possibility of Stocking being one of them, thus he remains Lost At Sea.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)