Combat· American Civil War
Coastal occupations and Mosquito Creek Raid
A series of small consolidating operations along the South Carolina and Georgia coast in the weeks after Port Royal.
With the Union firmly based in the Sound, the gunboats of the blockading squadron pushed into the surrounding rivers and inlets, putting Marine and sailor parties ashore to occupy abandoned Confederate positions and break up the enemy's coastal infrastructure. In one such action, on Mosquito Creek, a landing party from the Dale, with the ship's guns trained on a house used as a Confederate headquarters, scattered the defenders under the bombardment and went ashore to destroy the building and the stores there. These were minor affairs, raids and occupations rather than battles, but together they extended and secured the Union grip on the coast that the capture of Port Royal had begun. No casualties resulted. The work was the steady mopping-up that followed the squadron's main success.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 407