The monarch was able to maintain absolute control over the society with the addition of feudalism, which involved people being placed into different estates of power, such as: clergy, nobility and peasants.
In an effort to relieve the caseload burden in the Supreme Court and to handle a dramatic increase in federal filings, Congress, in the Judiciary Act of 1891, established nine courts of appeals, one for each judicial circuit.
The battle you are referring to is actually called the Battle of the Ironclads. In this battle, it was the Merrimac (from the Confederacy) versus the USS Monitor (from the Union). This was the first battle between iron-fortified vessels in the Civil War. This battle ended up in a draw but represented a new form of fighting that both the Union and Confederacy had to be ready for.
