He made little noise but the work he did was destined to become
the determining factor of the war.
The first blow was struck at North Carolina.
On August 26, 1861, at one o'clock the fleet quietly put to sea from
Fortress Monroe. On Tuesday they arrived at Hatteras Inlet, opened fire
on the two forts guarding its entrance and on the twenty-ninth a white
flag was raised. Seven hundred and fifteen prisoners were surrendered,
one thousand stand of arms, and thirty pieces of cannon. At a single
blow the whole vast inland water coast of North Carolina on her Sounds
was opened to the enemy with communications from Norfolk, Virginia, to
Beaufort. A garrison of a thousand men could hold those forts for all
time with the navy in command of the sea.
Burnside followed with his expedition into the Sounds, captured Roanoke
Island and the fall of Newbern was inevitable. Every river-mouth and
inlet of the entire coast of North Carolina was now in the hands of the
Federal Government save the single port of Wilmington.
The moral effect of this blow by the navy was tremendous in the North.
It was the first token of renewed power since the defeat at Bull Run.
The navy had not only turned the tide of defeat in the imagination of
the people, the achievement was one of vast importance to the North and
the most sinister import to the South.
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