John Flack Winslow and the USS Monitor
The Untold Story of the Union's Forgotten Benefactor
On March 9, 1862, the U. S. Monitor ended the greatest threat to the Union's Civil War effort, up to that time, by repelling the Confederate ironclad warship, Virginia, as it began a destruction of the ships of the Union blockade in Hampton Roads. However, the victorious Monitor was not the property of the U.S. Navy or even the property of the United States Government. It was, in fact, the personal property of John Flack Winslow.
An industrialist from Troy, New York, John Flack Winslow was proclaimed "a benefactor of the nation" following the battle and was widely celebrated, both in his home state of New York and in Washington, D.C. Although he died on March 10, 1892, a newspaper article published thirty-six years later still referred to him as Captain Winslow, the designer of the U.S. Monitor (see Appendix C, paragraph 3).
Winslow's contribution to history was managerial, not military. While on a trip to Washington, D.C., Winslow was approached by Cornelius S. Bushnell, a ship builder from Mystic, Connecticut, who was acting as agent for John Ericsson. Bushnell and Ericsson had tried to interest the Navy in the Monitor but had been rebuffed. Winslow was already doing ironclad shipbuilding business with the U.S. Government (the Galena) and was acquainted with John Seward, the Secretary of State as well.
Seward arranged a meeting with Abraham Lincoln and Winslow argued in favor of the Monitor project. Lincoln indicated his approval, then left the meeting. During subsequent meetings, the Navy resisted the project but finally approved it but without funding in a final effort the sabotage the matter. Largely out of frustration, Winslow arranged to pay for it himself. See Appendix A, pages 21 to 44.
A contract was signed October 4, 1861 for $275,000 (Appendix A, pages 44 to 51) and construction began rapidly. Interim reimbursements were made by the Navy during construction but by the time of the battle the final payments had not been made. Therefore, the Monitor remained the property of the de facto lien holder, John Flack Winslow.
John Ericsson is widely believed to be the inventor of the revolving gun turret. Actually, the turret was patented on January 18, 1843 by Theodore R. Timby, who got the idea from the Battery in New York harbor. Winslow paid a royalty of $5,000 to use the device on the Monitor. Winslow says Ericsson never patented anything on the Monitor except a mechanism for opening the gun turret doors. Winslow also alleges that Ericsson had his diaries destroyed at his death, thus avoiding any scrutiny into that matter, or any others.
John Flack Winslow's first wife died on December 9, 1861, just two months after construction began on the Monitor. The marriage was childless and it appears, from a tombstone inscription, that he may have adopted his brother's son, who died at the age of twenty-seven, in 1877. He remarried in 1867 and had two daughters. One died in childhood; the other married and had a daughter but this girl left no progeny. He adopted this second wife's nephew soon after the boy's birth in 1883, upon the death of the mother. This son, Thomas Scudder Winslow, had three children, all with living descendants.
John Flack Winslow moved from Troy to Poughkeepsie in 1867 and died there on March 10, 1892, thirty years and a day after the battle in Hampton Roads. His second wife died in Poughkeepsie January 18, 1926. Appendices B and C address events at their Poughkeepsie estate, Wood Cliff, but offer historical information parenthetically. Appendix A, "John Flack Winslow and the Monitor," was written by the husband of a niece of the second Mrs. Winslow and was printed privately. There is no public memorial to John Flack Winslow except for a small plaque in Washington, D.C.
"John Flack Winslow and the Monitor," an account relayed by John Flack Winslow to his minister, the Reverend Francis Brown Wheeler, copyright 1893; printed privately by the family. The contents are as follows:
Biography, pages 5 through 11.
Funeral Services of John Flack Winslow, pages 11 through 13.
Address, from the Funeral, pages 13 through 20.
The Monitor, pages 21 through 66.
Reverend Wheeler's Account, pages 21 through 44.
Contract for Construction of the Monitor, pages 44 through 49.
Documents Related to the Contract, pages 50 through 54.
Who Invented the Monitor?, pages 54 through 57.
In the Interest of Impartial History, pages 57 through 66.
Newspaper Article: from "Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker", August 20, 1944, "Happy Times Recalled at 'Wood Cliff'". An article recounting the life of John Flack Winslow and his residency at his estate "Wood Cliff" on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, from 1868 to his death in 1892. The estate was owned by his second wife until her death in 1926.
Newspaper Article: circa 1928, publication and date unknown, recounting the auction of historical furnishings at the estate of John Flack Winslow, "Wood Cliff," after the death of the second Mrs. John Flack Winslow in 1926.
For comments or information, please send e-mail to: chwheeler@johnflackwinslow.com