After destroying the small Confederate Mosquito Fleet at Elizabeth City Flag Officer Goldsborough next focused his efforts on the destruction of the railroad bridges over the Nottoway and Blackwater Rivers. On February 18th Commodore Rowan left Roanoke Island with 8 gunboats. He would bring part of the 4th RI Infantry and the 9th NY under Colonel Rush Hawkins as infantry support. The flotilla steamed up the Chowan River on the 19th toward Winton. The town sat on a bluff above the river. Waiting for the Federals on the bluff was Lieutenant Colonel William Williams with 400 men of his 1st NC Battalion and Captain J.N. Nichols 4-gun battery. He felt that he could shoot down on the Federals while they would not be able to elevate their guns enough to reach him on the bluff. He hired a mulatto woman to go down to the docks to signal that all was clear and try and lure the Federals closer to shore. The pilot steered the lead ship USS Delaware toward the dock when Colonel Hawkins up in the mainmast noticed the gleam of the late day sun off of muskets on the hill and ordered the ships pilot to pull away. The ship was hit 125 times mostly by bullets with no casualties.

Hawkins was climbing down quickly from the mainmast when a bullet severed his rope and he fell to the deck but was uninjured. Rowan backed downriver and when the Perry arrived both boats shelled the town. After a council of war downriver it was decided that the ships would return to Winton and land the infantry who would assault the Confederates. On the morning of the 19th the Union gunboats returned and shelled the town. Williams and the townspeople fled. Hawkins decided that most of the structures in the town were used to shelter the enemy and he burned the town. Only the Methodist Church and two buildings belonging to Union sympathizers survived the blaze. Hawkins said that the burning of Winton was “the first instance in North Carolina during the war where fire has accompanied the sword.” Rowan and Hawkins decided to return to Roanoke Island because they felt the element of surprise for their further movement upriver had been lost.

The next three images show the Chowan River taken where King Street dead ends at the river.

Next- The Battle of New Bern March 13, 1862

Source

Burnside’s Invasion of North Carolina by Richard Sauers. Blue and Gray Magazine Volume 5, Issue 5. May 1988.