In 1862 military activity around Topsail Island in North Carolina involved the capture and destruction of three blockade runners. The Adelaide was captured by the USS Ellis commanded by Lieutenant William Cushing, and the Racer and Coquette were captured by the USS Daylight under Acting Master J.D. Warren. In addition to capturing the Adelaide Lieutentant Cushing also destroyed a salt work near New Topsail Inlet in late October

Lieutenant Cushing, who was at an early stage of his career, would become one of the most famous naval officers of the war. He had been on blockade duty at Bogue Inlet for two days. With things quiet there he decided to steam to New Topsail Inlet, while he had been in Beaufort, SC, he learned that an active blockade running trade was being conducted there. The Ellis entered the inlet, which was not fortified, and discovered a large schooner about a mile in. He did not have a local pilot and grounded within 100 yards of her. Its crew was gone but had set a small fire on the quarter-deck before leaving, which was easily extinguished. The ship was the Adelaide, of Halifax. She contained about 600 barrels of turpentine in the hold and 36 bales of cotton and some tobacco. The captain took off his papers and flag when he left the ship. The Ellis took the vessel in tow at 4:00 AM but it kept grounding and could not cross the bar. Four hours later Cushing ordered the hold of the ship fired. Before Cushing could cross the inlet inlet, the barrels exploded and the flames extended to her mastheads. Cushing’s report appears below. Given the success of the mission Cushing’s supervisor. H.K. Davenport, wrote in his report “in consideration of the fact that by so doing he has captured and destroyed a vessel ready for sea and laden with a valuable cargo of the enemy’s property, I have addressed him a note (a copy of which is herewith enclosed) approving his action. I respectfully trust that you will agree with me in sustaining him in the course he has pursued.”

The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, Volume 8, pages 151-152

Newbern Progress, Saturday, October 25, 1862, page 3

On October 30, 1862, at dawn while returning to Wilmington from Hampton Roads Acting Master J.D. Warren commanding the USS Daylight discovered a schooner at anchor between Stump Inlet and New Topsail Inlet. He headed toward the vessel and when within a mile of her two cutters were launched under the charge of Acting Master Gleason in order to board and examine the ship. Before they reached her their crew slipped their cable allowing the schooner to drift toward shore, and fled in a small boat. Master Gleason and his sailors reached the ship before she drifted onto shore. Finding no one on board, they were able to sail her out to sea. No flags or papers were found on board. The ship was the Racer out of Nassau loaded with salt. The Racer was sent to New York for adjudication under the charge of Acting Master’s Mate Henry Oakley and four men.

The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, Volume 8, pages 175-176- the capture of the Racer.

After gaining information that there was a schooner in the area attempting to run the blockade Acting Master J.D. Warren anchored the USS Daylight near New Topsail Inlet. The next morning (December 8th), at daylight they sighted a ship to their E. S. E. and gave chase. They quickly caught the sloop Coquette, out of Philadelphia, which according to its captain was headed for Beaufort, N. C.. However, Warren suspected the ship was actually attempting to run the blockade and enter New Topsail Inlet. He seized her cargo which included: 14 barrels that contained 681 bottles of whiskey, which were not on her manifest; 100 barrels of potatoes; 30 barrels of apples: and 10 barrels of onions. Because of the time of year and the vessel’s small size Warren deemed it unsafe to send the ship North and towed it to Beaufort. He also found on board a United States flag, a British flag, and a white flag, which he further concluded were evidence of blockade running activity.

The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, Volume 8, page 273 the capture of the Coquette by the USS Daylight.

The USS Daylight was a 682-ton screw-steam gunboat, originally built for commercial use, from 1859-60 in New York City. Chartered by the Navy in May 1861 she enforced the Federal blockade along the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. Off the North Carolina coast in 1862 she captured or helped capture three other blockade runners: November 4th along with the USS Mount Vernon, they forced blockade-running British bark Sophia aground and destroyed her near Masonboro Inlet; on December 3rd she captured the British blockade-runner Brilliant attempting to run a cargo of salt into Wilmington; and on December 8th she captured the sloop Coquette off New Topsail Inlet, with a cargo of whisky, potatoes, apples, and onions. In April 1862, the Daylight, General Burnside’s flagship, participated in the bombardment of Fort Macon and was damaged by Confederate gunfire. She was transferred to the James River in October of 1864 where she remained until the end of the war. The USS Daylight was decommissioned in May of 1865 in New York and sold in October. She returned to commercial service under the name Santee. Converted to a barge in 1886 she remained in use until about 1907. 

On the 29th of October Lieutenant Cushing destroyed a salt work near New Topsail Inlet. The action was described in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies, Series I, Volume 8, page 174. The brief report is shown below.