Confederate Commodore William F. Lynch arrived at Elizabeth City on the evening of the 7th. He found little in the way of shot and shell there. He sent the Raleigh to Norfolk via the Dismal Swamp Canal to look for ammunition. Lynch placed what supplies he could find on the Seabird and Appomattox and on the morning of the 9th headed down the Pasquotank River toward Roanoke Island. In route he learned of its surrender and when he saw some Union ships headed his way returned to Elizabeth City. Lynch would have seven ships, about 500 men from Colonel C.F. Henningsen’s 59th VA Volunteers, and several batteries of light guns. There was a fort with 4 guns on the western side of the river just downstream from the town on Cobb Point. Cobb Point jutted out into the river narrowing the channel to about 800 yards. Unfortunately, the four guns on the point were mounted so that three could only fire downstream and one across the river. This meant that once the Federals passed Cobb Point those four guns would be useless. The plan was to place five ships across the channel a few hundred yards upstream of the fort (Seabird, Ellis, Appomattox, Beaufort and Fanny). The Black Warrior, a schooner with two 32-pounder smoothbores, would be at the eastern end of the line opposite the fort.
The two pictures below were taken from the shore of the Pasquotank River directly across from Cobb Point showing the channel that the battle was fought in from a different view. This would have been the approximate location of the Black Warrior. Pictures taken from 36.3010712, -76.1712428.
The Federal fleet spent the 9th marking areas where the Croatan Sound barricade could be crossed and by 3:00 PM the fleet was on the north side. Commodore Stephen C. Rowan had 14 ships in addition to his flagship the Delaware, 56 guns and about 500 sailors and marines. By 8:06 PM that night they were 10 miles below Cobb Point. That night Rowan called his Captains together for a meeting on the Delaware to inform them of his plan. Because they were low on ammunition they would attack the enemy, board their ships and fight hand to hand. On the morning of the 10th they advanced. In advance to reconnoiter were the Delaware, followed by the Underwriter, Perry, Morse and Ceres. The remainder of the force followed led by the Louisiana and Hetzel and included the Commodore Perry, Seymour, Lockwood, Shawsheen, Brinker and Putnam. The Valley City and Whitehead would attack the Cobb Point battery in reverse only after passing it. Rowan had learned of the weakness of the Cobb Point battery from a Confederate deserter.
Commodore Lynch arrived at Fort Cobb early in the morning to check on it and found only a civilian (Mr. Hinrick) and seven militiamen there. Lynch stayed at the fort to take personal command and sent word to Lieutenant Commanding Parker on the Beaufort to bring his ammunition and most of its crew to the fort. Despite this they only had enough men to man three of the four guns. When the militia deserted the fort they would only be able to operate two of the 32 pounders. The remainder of the Beaufort’s crew would then take the ship to Norfolk via the Dismal Swamp Canal. As the Confederates fired long range on the Union flotilla the Federals did not fire back, but once they were within three-quarters of a mile the Union ships increased their speed and dashed forward while firing. The Seabird, Fanny and Ellis were hit multiple times. When the USS Whitehead dashed at the Black Warrior its crew fled setting fire to the ship. The Seabird was on fire when it was rammed by the USS Commodore Perry and sunk. The CSS Ellis was boarded by seamen of the Ceres and was the only ship captured intact. Some of the crew of the Ellis while they were attempting to flee on shore, after abandoning ship, were hit by musket fire. Midshipman Jackson was one of the wounded Confederates. He was taken on board the Hetzel and despite medical care died a few hours later. He was buried in the Cobb Point Fort. The Fanny headed toward the west shore but when it was clear that it would be boarded its crew set it on fire and abandoned ship. The Beaufort fled to the Dismal Swamp Canal, but it was 2 inches too wide to enter it and the ship was set on fire. Lynch ordered the Forrest to be burned and left Fort Cobb. Elizabeth City and the Dismal Swamp Canal were now in Union hands. Lynch’s Mosquito fleet had been destroyed right before his eyes. The battle is summarized in the Civil War Trails marker below.
The Federals sailed up the river to Elizabeth City with three ships (Delaware, Underwriter, and the Valley City). A Federal landing party discovered a mounted artillery officer of the Wise Legion (referred to as both Sergeant and Lieutenant Scruggs), carrying out orders of his commanding officer Colonel Henningsen, to help fire the town (marker below). Rowan ordered him arrested and brought to the Delaware. He also recalled his sailors from the town for fear they would be blamed for starting the fires. Two blocks of the town and a few other homes were burned. The Forrest and another Confederate gunboat in the shipyard were burned.
The commissary storehouse in town was raided. Engineers were sent to destroy machinery, boilers and railways. Lieutenant Commodore Flusser was ordered to destroy the Cobb Point fort. Rowan spent the next three days destroying the machinery of the Fanny and Seabird and recovering cannons.
The Confederates suffered 4 men killed including: Acting Midshipman Jackson and one seaman of the Ellis; and seamen Ballance and Bragg of the Seabird. One seaman on the Ellis was wounded as were Third Assistant Engineer Henderson and 4 seamen from the Sea Bird. Assistant Surgeon Samuel Jones submitted the list of Union casualties shown below.
On the evening of the 11th Commander Rowan sent Lieutenant Commander Murray to Edenton to make a reconnaissance. He would take a small force with him that included the Louisiana, the Commodore Perry, the Lockwood and the Underwriter. At 8:30 in the morning of the 12th they arrived off the entrance of the harbor and proceeded in with the Lockwood in the lead. At 10:00 Commander Murray took possession of the town. Part of an artillery regiment (100-300 men) fled without firing a shot. There were no fortifications at or in the water approaches to the town. Eight cannon and a schooner on the stocks were destroyed. Two schooners were captured, one of these had 4,000 bushels of corn onboard. Six bales of cotton were taken from the custom-house wharf. There were no other stores in the town. The pictures below were taken looking out toward Albemarle Sound from the shoreline at Edenton from 36.0558528, -76.6097179.
When Commander Murray returned he was sent on another mission this time to obstruct the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal. The canal, shown below, was a navigable waterway that connected Albemarle Sound to the Elizabeth River, and then via the James River to Richmond. There was the North Carolina Cut that connected the North River to Coinjock Bay and Currituck Sound (lower right) and the Virginia Cut that connected the North Landing River to the Elizabeth River and Norfolk, Virginia.
This time Commander Murray would sail with the Louisiana, Underwriter, Shawsheen, Lockwood and Whitehead as well as the two schooners he had captured in Edenton. The Louisiana and Underwriter were anchored off the bar of the North River. Lieutenant Commanding Jeffers ascended the river to the mouth of the canal with the other three ships. On reaching the mouth two small Rebel steamers and three schooners were a mile and a half up the canal and the mouth was obstructed. Pickets fired on the Union ships but were quickly dispersed when the Whitehead opened fire with her 9-inch gun. The Rebels had sunk a schooner about 50 yards into the canal supported by piles and logs forming a complete barrier. Jeffers advanced a picket of 15 men under Acting Master Graves and a group of machinists from the Louisiana. A half a mile further into the canal a row of piles had been driven. Confederates from Wise’s Legion had sunk a dredging machine there blocking the channel even to the smallest ships and fled when they spotted the Federals. Jeffers ordered the two schooners he had brought with him sunk and burned to the water line at the mouth of the canal completing the work of the Rebels. The marker and views below are of the North Carolina Cut of the canal.
The two pictures below show what was the North Carolina Cut of the Cheasapeake and Albemarle Canal now part of the Intracoastal Waterway,
Another February 1862 expedition
Currituck Sound
Next- Elizabeth City- Other Civil War Sites
Sources
The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Report of Flag Officer Lynch, Series 1, Volume 6, pages 595-597.
The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Detailed Report of Commander Rowan, Series 1, Volume 6, pages 606-609.
The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Reports of Lieutenants Commanding Murray and Jeffers Series 1, Volume 6, 637-639.
The War of the Rebellion, The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Report of Colonel C.F. Henningsen, Fifty-ninth Virginia. Series 1, Volume 9, Chapter 20, pages 191-193.
Burnside’s Invasion of North Carolina by Richard A. Sauers. Blue and Gray Magazine. Volume 5, Issue 5. May 1988.
Gunboats, Muskets, and Torpedoes. Coastal North Carolina 1861-1865.