The map below shows the Outer Banks, inlets and sounds of North Carolina. The red dots illustrate the locations of forts that guarded the three major inlets in August of 1861. Fort Oregon on the southern shore of Oregon Inlet, two forts Clark and Hatteras on the northern shore of Hatteras Inlet and Fort Ocracoke on Beacon Island just inside Ocracoke Inlet.

At the beginning of the war Hatteras Inlet was a busier port than Beaufort, N.C. and almost as busy as Wilmington. Privateers and their seizure of merchant ships traveling to and from the North, would bring a lot of attention to the area, which would ultimately have severe consequences for the region. Enraged merchants and ship owners in the North ridiculed the blockade. Insurers of the New York Board of Underwriters demanded protection against further captures. Northern shipowners were dropping out of the Caribbean trade or transferring their registries to Great Britain. Lincoln and his Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had to do something. Welles admonished Commodore Silas Stringham, the head of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and ordered Major General John E. Wool, now commanding at Fort Monroe, to begin organizing a detachment of troops to assist the Navy against Hatteras in what would become the first joint operation between the two services.

In the meantime, Confederates were busy working on two earthen forts on the northern side of Hatteras Inlet. Fort Hatteras was an eighth of a mile from the inlet and defended the channel. A second smaller fort, Fort Clark, was closer to the ocean about 3/4 of a mile away.

Fort Hatteras was square, 250 feet wide, and constructed with planks and sand. It had twelve 32 pound smooth-bore cannons, but their range was limited. Fort Clark had five 32-pounders and two other guns. Fort Hatteras was completed in mid-June 1861 and Fort Clark the following month. The first troops were sent there in May and by the end of the summer Colonel William F. Martin commanded 350 men of the 7th NC. There were only a total of 580 men assigned to defend all three inlets. The state had also purchased five small steamers to serve within the sounds as transports and privateers.

Benjamin Butler would command the Army’s part of the mission but was given only 880 men from the 9th NY, 20th NY, and 2nd U.S. Artillery. The Naval part of the mission would be commanded by Commodore Silas Stringham. He would have seven ships the Minnesota, Pawnee, Harriet Lane, Cumberland, Susquehanna, Monticello and Wabash with a total of 143 guns. There would also be two troop charters the Adelaide and George Peabody, as well as smaller tugs.

Unknown to the Confederates on Hatteras the Union had detailed information regarding their defenses. Two seamen, Daniel A. Campbell of Maine and Henry W. Penny of New York, were recently released from captivity there after losing their ships and provided valuable intelligence on each of the forts.

The armada left Hampton Roads on August 26th and arrived off Hatteras Inlet the following day. Colonel William Martin immediately called for reinforcements from Portsmouth, south of Ocracoke inlet, but there were no ships available to transport them. At 10 AM on the 28th the Wabash, Cumberland and Minnesota opened fire on Fort Clark followed soon thereafter by the Susquehanna. The forts guns could not reach the ships. Just before noon Union troops began to land but the surf was running high and only 318 men of the 20th NY commanded by Colonel Max Weber and 2 cannon made it ashore.

Fort Clark ran out of ammunition by noon and Colonel J.C. Lamb spiked his guns and evacuated his men to Fort Hatteras.

As night fell Union ships were driven out to sea by poor weather leaving Colonel Weber’s men stranded on the shoreline. They prepared for what they were certain would be a Confederate night attack. The Confederate steamers Winslow and Ellis arrived at Fort Hatteras with about a thousand men from Portsmouth along with Commodore Samuel Barron the Chief of Coastal Defenses of North Carolina and Virginia. Additional men were expected from New Bern but they never arrived. Surprisingly, they made no attempt to attack the small Union force stranded on the Atlantic side of the inlet. The next morning, August 29th, in smooth waters the Federal Navy again attacked. Out of range of Fort Hatteras’ guns they bombarded the fort at one point at a rate of 28 shells per minute. One shell struck the forts ammunition magazine setting it on fire. Shortly thereafter the Fort Hatteras surrendered.

The operation was conducted without the death of a single Union soldier and about 700 rebel prisoners were captured including Commodore Barron. The victory boosted Northern morale after the loss at Bull Run the previous month. Butler and Stringham’s original orders were to reduce the forts and return to Fort Monroe. The following day, August 30th, a group of loyal citizens appealed to the Union forces for protection. Both Butler and Stringham decided against orders to leave an occupying force. Butler left the 9th and 20th NY under Colonel Rush Hawkins and Stringham the ships Monticello, Pawnee, Harriet Lane and Susquehanna. This forced the Confederates to abandon Forts Ocracoke and Oregon.

Fort Hatteras has been reclaimed by the seas and no longer exists. A potential site for Fort Clark has been identified which is located about 2 miles past the Ocracoke Ferry docks on a National Park Service access road. Although I did not travel down the access road, I was able to take pictures of the general area at the southern tip of the island on the ferry ride to Ocracoke Island. The southern tip appears to have a sandbar that comes off it where people had driven their vehicles. An archeological study was carried out at this potential site and is described in the link- Ephemeral Traces in the Sand: The Archaeological Search Fort Clark by Charles L. Heath Jr. which was presented at the Hatteras Island Civil War Conference in Buxton, North Carolina in 1999.

Fort Ocracoke is now underwater in Ocracoke Inlet. The marker below is on the island and there is a small exhibit at the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum located at 49 Water Plant Road.

Fort Oregon is also now below the sea. The site where the fort was located has shifted over time relative to the inlet and is shown in the three figures below with data from 1862, 1937 and 1975. As sand moves down the coast the inlet has moved south over time migrating at a rate of about 23 meters per year. The fort was originally on the southern tip of the inlet in 1862 (Figure 12 below) but is now located offshore on the north side of the current inlet location (Figure 14).

Sources

War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 by James M. McPherson.

The Civil War in Coastal North Carolina by John S. Carbone.

The Civil War and North Carolina by John G. Barrett.

Ephemeral Traces in the Sand: The Archaeological Search Fort Clark by Charles L. Heath Jr. 1999. Presented at the Hatteras Island Civil War Conference, Buxton, North Carolina.

The Outer Banks of North Carolina: Budget of Sediment and Inlet Dynamics along a Migrating Barrier System. by Douglas L. Inman and Robert Dolan. Journal of Coastal Research Vol 5. No. 2 Spring 1989, pp 193-237.