Hatteras Inlet
27-28 AUGUST 1861
HATTERAS INLET
Union MGEN Benjamin F. Butler, commanding Fort Monroe but not renowned for his tactical genius, nevertheless cleared Rebels from the Newport News region of Virginia during the spring of 1861. This effort was defeated at the battle of Big Bethel on June 10th. Hoping to redeem himself after learning that the Confederate defenses of North Carolina’s Outer Banks were weak, Butler wrote to Washington suggesting he head an operation there. His letters arrived just after the demoralizing Union defeat at Bull Run, and when maritime insurance rates were soaring as a result of Confederate privateers operating from Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke.
On the morning of August 27th, a Union Navy flotilla commanded by CAPT Silas Stringham arrived off Hatteras Island with Butler’s 900-man 9th and 20th New York regiments embarked. Around 1000 the frigates USS MINNESOTA, WABASH, CUMBERLAND and the gunboats MONTICELLO, HARRIET LANE and PAWNEE opened with their combined 149 guns. COL William F. Martin’s 350 Confederate defenders hunkered inside Fort Clark, one of two earthen fortifications guarding each side of the entrance to Hatteras Inlet. Steam powered warships were a novelty for our Navy in warfare, and instead of anchoring his fleet for the bombardment Stringham cleverly steamed them in a circle, firing in rotation. As such they were more difficult targets for Confederate artillerists, who scored few hits. Butler’s troops began landing at noon north of the Inlet. Rough surf allowed only 318 of the 20th New York to be landed–exhausted, powder soggy, and short of food and water. But by now Stringham’s ships had largely reduced Fort Clark, and at 1230, Martin’s Confederates withdrew across the Inlet to Fort Hatteras. The 20th New York straggled into Fort Clark and raised the American flag, the first of the war over a Confederate fort.
Rebel reinforcements numbering 230 arrived that night from Ocracoke under Confederate Navy Commodore Samuel Barron. Had their leader known the sorry state of the 20th New York, his superior numbers might have retaken Fort Clark with little effort. At dawn Stringham’s flotilla turned its attention to Fort Hatteras. The onslaught was remarkable, over 3000 shot and shells rained onto the fort–as many at 28/minute. At 1100 a shell threaded one of the ventilation ducts and started a fire that looked threatening. The Confederates had had enough. At 1107 they raised a white flag.
Though Butler’s troops did little except occupy forts cleared by naval gunnery, he received the laurels for the victory. The Confederate positions at Ocracoke and Oregon Inlet were soon abandoned, and coastal North Carolina was opened to the Union.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 30 AUG 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Anderson, Bern. By Sea and by River: The Naval History of the Civil War. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962, pp. 48-52.
Fowler, William M., Jr. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. New York, NY: Avon Books, 1990, pp. 61-65.
Jones, Virgil Carrington. The Civil War at Sea, Vol 1 The Blockaders. New York, NY: Holt Rinehart Winston, 1960, pp. 192-209.
Miller, Edward Stokes. Civil War Sea Battles: Seafights and Shipwrecks in the War Between the States. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, Inc., 1995, pp. 57-66.
Page, Dave. Ships Versus Shore: Civil War Engagements along Southern Shores and Rivers. Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994′ pp. 59-63.
Trotter, William R. Ironclads and Columbiads: The Civil War in North Carolina, The Coast. Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair Pub., 1989, pp. 25-41.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: Hatteras Inlet separates Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands. Storms have erased all traces of Forts Clark and Hatteras today, but the land upon which they stood is now part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
Coming at a time of Union Army missteps and the humiliating defeat at Bull Run, this victory boosted the Unionist cause. However, the strategic importance of Hatteras has been appreciated more by historians than by leaders at the time. Had Lincoln exploited this victory, and the subsequent conquest of Roanoke Island, he could have taken eastern North Carolina and the key railhead at Goldsboro. Lee’s Army of Virginia would have been cut off from supply, the South would have effectively been divided.
Instead, the Northern strategy during the initial months of the Civil War was essentially that of the earlier Mexican War. The North anticipated and sought a Napoleonic-style conflict employing major land forces, culminating in the capture of the enemy’s capital city (Richmond). Mexico and the Confederacy shared the commonality of having large land masses, miles of remote coastline, and inland capital cities.
