Combat· American Civil War
Albemarle Engagement
A naval action against the Confederate ironclad that dominated the North Carolina sounds.
On 5 May 1864 a Union squadron, with Marine guards aboard, met the ram CSS Albemarle in Albemarle Sound and fought a sharp engagement to check her. The wooden gunboats could do little against her iron plating; the Sassacus drove her bow full into the ironclad in a desperate attempt to ram her under, only to be badly damaged in return when the Albemarle's fire pierced her boiler. The ironclad was battered but came through afloat and withdrew, and she continued to menace Union operations in the sounds for months afterward. The threat was ended only that autumn, when Lieutenant William Cushing destroyed her at her moorings in a daring spar-torpedo boat attack. The May engagement settled nothing, but it showed how a single ironclad could hold a whole wooden squadron at bay.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 425