Combat· American Civil War
Battle of Hatteras Inlet
The first major Union amphibious success of the war.
In late August 1861 a squadron under Flag Officer Stringham, with troops under General Butler, moved against the two earthwork forts, Clark and Hatteras, guarding Hatteras Inlet on the North Carolina coast. Marines from the frigate Minnesota, the sloop Cumberland, and other ships formed part of the landing force put ashore through a heavy surf, while the warships hammered the forts from the sea. The landing was difficult and incomplete, but the naval bombardment did the decisive work: a lucky shell touched off a magazine, and Fort Hatteras surrendered, with some seven hundred Confederate defenders taken. No Marine casualties resulted. The capture gave the Union control of the strategic entrance to the North Carolina sounds and opened the way to the later operations against Roanoke Island and New Bern, an encouraging early demonstration of combined naval and landing power.
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Record no. 403