Battle of Elizabeth City

Battle of Elizabeth City
Part of the American Civil War
USS Commodore Perry's guns, 1864
Date 10 February 1862 (1862-02-10) Location Camden County / Pasquotank County, near Elizabeth City, North Carolina Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
Stephen C. Rowan	William F. Lynch
Strength
13 gunboats	Land: ~34 men 4 artillery pieces Sea: 5 gunboats 1 schooner
Casualties and losses
2 steamers damaged 2 killed 7 wounded	1 steamer sunk 1 armed tug captured 1 steamer scuttled 1 armed tug scuttled 1 schooner scuttled 5 killed 7 wounded 34 captured

The Battle of Elizabeth City of the American Civil War was fought in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Roanoke Island. It took place on 10 February 1862, on the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The participants were vessels of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, opposed by vessels of the Confederate Navy's Mosquito Fleet; the latter were supported by a shore-based battery of four guns at Cobb's Point (now called Cobb Point), near the southeastern border of the town. The battle was a part of the campaign in North Carolina that was led by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and known as the Burnside Expedition. The result was a Union victory, with Elizabeth City and its nearby waters in their possession, and the Confederate fleet captured, sunk, or dispersed.

At the outset of the American Civil War, the Union sought to implement its Anaconda Plan to isolate and defeat the Confederacy. The crucial first step was to blockade the Confederate coast to prevent access to Europe; this was relataively easy, as the pre-war navy was almost entirely from the Union states. The Union then sought to use its naval advantage to advance the rest of the Anaconda Plan by cutting parts of the Confederacy off from one another.

Elizabeth City lies near the mouth of the Pasquotank River, where it flows into Albemarle Sound from the north. North of the city is the Dismal Swamp Canal. To the east is the southern segment of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, separated from the Pasquotank River by only a narrow neck of land. Much of the food and forage delivered from North Carolina to southeastern Virginia was transported along these two canals. In particular, Norfolk, Virginia depended upon continued access to the canals for its subsistence. So long as the North Carolina Sounds remained in Confederate hands, Norfolk could be well supplied despite the blockading efforts of the Union Navy at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

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Wikipedia