Question: Which ship was John Taylor Wood a serving Lieutenant on when it engaged the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union in the American Civil War?

Context paragraphs:
Russian gunboat Opyt (1861): The gunboat Opyt (Russian: Опыт : experience) was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Imperial Russian Navy.  It was built by Carr and MacPherson at the Baltic shipyard in Saint Petersburg.  English and Russian wrought iron plates 1200 x 1000 mm in size protected the front part of the gunboat.

SMS Hansa (1872): SMS "Hansa"  was a German ironclad warship built in 1868–1875.  She was the first ironclad built in Germany; all previous German ironclads had been built in foreign shipyards.  She was named after the Hanseatic League, known in Germany simply as "Hanse", Latinized "Hansa".  The ship was launched in October 1872 and commissioned into the German Imperial Navy ("Kaiserliche Marine") in May 1875.  Designed for overseas service, "Hansa" was classed as an armored corvette and armed with eight 21 cm guns in a central battery.

Ironclad warship: An ironclad is a steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates used in the early part of the second half of the 19th century.  The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or incendiary shells.  The first ironclad battleship, "Gloire" , was launched by the French Navy in November 1859.  The British Admiralty had been considering armored warships since 1856 and prepared a draft design for an armored corvette in 1857; in early 1859 the Royal Navy started building two iron-hulled armored frigates, and by 1861 had made the decision to move to an all-armored battle fleet.  After the first clashes of ironclads (both with wooden ships and with one another) took place in 1862 during the American Civil War, it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the unarmored ship of the line as the most powerful warship afloat.  This type of ship would come to be very successful in the American Civil War.

John Taylor Wood: John Taylor Wood (August 13, 1830 – July 19, 1904) was an officer in the United States Navy and the Confederate Navy.  He resigned from the U.S. Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War, and became a "leading Confederate naval hero" as a captain in the Confederate Navy.  He was a Lieutenant serving aboard the CSS "Virginia" when it engaged the USS "Monitor" in 1862, one of the most famous naval battles in Civil War and U.S. Naval history.  He was caught in 1865 in Georgia with Confederate President Jefferson Davis' party, but escaped and made his way to Cuba.  From there, he got to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he settled and became a merchant.  His wife and children joined him there, and more children were born in Canada which is where he lived out the remainder of his life.

CSS Mississippi: CSS "Mississippi" was a projected ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, intended to be used on the Mississippi River in the vicinity of New Orleans during the American Civil War.  Her design was unusual, as she was built according to house-building techniques.  Whether this would have proved to be feasible cannot be known, as she was not complete when New Orleans fell to the Union Fleet under Flag Officer David G. Farragut on 25 April 1862.  Rather than let her fall into enemy hands, Captain Arthur Sinclair, CSN, ordered her to be hastily launched and burned.  Despite the delays in construction that left her unfinished and untried, her mere existence, together with that of CSS "Louisiana", raised thwarted hopes in the defenders of New Orleans, and unfounded fears in Union circles, that affected the strategy of both sides in the campaign on the lower Mississippi.  "Mississippi" is significant to the Civil War therefore not so much as a warship as in the way her reputation influenced events, and as an example of the difficulties the South had in the contest with the industrial North.

CSS Virginia: CSS "Virginia" was the first steam-powered ironclad warship built by the Confederate States Navy during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and engines of the scuttled steam frigate USS "Merrimack" .  "Virginia" was one of the participants in the Battle of Hampton Roads, opposing the Union's  in March 1862.  The battle is chiefly significant in naval history as the first battle between ironclads.

USS Monitor (LSV-5): USS "Monitor" (LSV-5/AN-1/AP-160/MCS-5) was an "Osage"-class vehicle landing ship built for the United States Navy during World War II.  She was named after the original  (the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Navy), and was the second U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.

SMS Erzherzog Albrecht: SMS "Erzherzog Albrecht was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class.  Her design was similar to the ironclad "Custoza" , but "Erzherzog Albrecht" was built to a smaller size; like "Custoza", she was an iron-hulled casemate ship armed with a battery of eight heavy guns.  The ship was laid down in June 1870, was launched in April 1872, and was commissioned in June 1874.  The ship's service career was limited; tight naval budgets precluded an active fleet policy in the 1870s, which did not markedly improve in the 1880s.  Her first period of active service came in 1881 and 1882, when she helped suppress a revolt in Cattaro Bay.  In 1908, she was converted into a tender for the gunnery training school, having been renamed Feuerspeier.  In 1915, she became a barracks ship, and after World War I ended in 1918, was ceded to Italy as a war prize.  She was renamed Buttafuoco", served in the Italian Navy as a hulk through World War II before being scrapped in 1950.

USS Merrimack (1855): USS "Merrimack, also improperly Merrimac", was a frigate, best known as the hull upon which the ironclad warship CSS "Virginia" was constructed during the American Civil War.  The CSS "Virginia" then took part in the Battle of Hampton Roads (also known as "the Battle of the "Monitor" and the "Merrimack"") in the first engagement between ironclad warships.

USS Monitor: USS "Monitor" was an iron-hulled steamship.  Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy.  "Monitor" is most famous for her central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862, where, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, she fought the casemate ironclad  (built on the hull of the former steam frigate USS "Merrimack" ) to a standstill.  The unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the monitor type of warship.

Supporting paragraphs: John Taylor Wood USS Monitor
Answer: CSS "Virginia"