BY RUSH C. HAWK IKS, BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL, U. S. V.
NE sultry afternoon in the last third of the month ofAugust, 1861, while stationed at Newport News, Virginia ,with my regiment, the 9th New York (Zouaves), a mes-sage from General Benjamin P. Butler came throughthe signal corps station from Port Monroe asking if Iwould like to go upon an expedition. An affirmativeanswer brought General Butler to my headquarters thesame afternoon, and he explained the objects of theproposed expedition, which was to he composed of mili-tary and naval forces for joint offensive action on thecoast of North Carolina .
CAPTURE AND DEFENSE OF HATTERAS ISLAND.
At 11 o’clock in the forenoon of August 26th, 1861,all arrangements having been completed, the combinedforces set sail for Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina , withFlag-Officer Silas H. Stringham in command of the fleet and Major-GeneralB. P. Butler of the land forces. The same afternoon the fleet arrived offHatteras, and at 10 o’clock on the morning of the 28th began the bombard-ment of Ports Clark and Hatteras (the latter mounting twenty-five guns),which was continued throughout a part of the day, until several of theships were compelled to put out to sea for fear of being blown too nearthe shore. During the bombardment, efforts were being made about threemiles north of the inlet to land the troops through the Hatteras breakers;in these efforts all the available boats were smashed. Two hulks, which hadbeen towed from Port Monroe for the purpose of assisting the landing, werethen filled with troops and slowly allowed to drift into the breakers by meansof a cable attached to an anchor and passed around a windlass fixed in thedeck of each hulk. Late in the afternoon, when the wind came to blow freshfrom the east, the position of the troops upon the hulks became most perilous,and for a time there were serious doubts about a successful rescue. Finally
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J “ The State of North Carolina, immediately afterpassing the ordinance of secession, began the work ofdefending the possession of the sounds. The steamerWinslow, a small side-wheel steamboat, was fitted outb.y the governor of the State, and on the outside of Hat-teras began to annoy and destroy the commerce of theUnited States , under Thomas M. Crossan, formerly ofthe United States Navy . The TFmsfoic captured andbrought into the sounds for condemnation many prizes.. . . The outcry that went up from commercial circlesat the North may have had no little to do in influencingthe naval authorities to block the outlet from which thelittle Winslow inflicted such damages. After the Stateunited herself to the Confederate States her navy, con-sisting of the Winslow, the Ellis, the Raleigh , and theBeaufort, all ordinary steamboats armed with one gun
each, was turned over to the Confederate States. Thedefense of the entrances to these sounds was under-taken by the erection of batteries at Hatteras and Ocra-coke Inlet, and at Beaufort; on the interior watersNew Berne, Roanoke Island , and the mouth of theNeuse River were defended under the State by smallbatteries, which were not completed when the Stateadopted the constitution of the Confederate States.
“ Major R. C. Gatlin was commander of the SouthernDepartment Coast Defenses, with headquarters at Wil-mington, North Carolina . Promoted to Brigadier-Gen-eral in August, 1861, he was assigned to the commandof the Department of North Carolina and the coastdefenses of the State.” [Scharf’s “History of the Con-federate States Navy.” New-York: Rogers and Sher-wood.]
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