Her next important service came the following summer when a task force was sent against Fort Clark and Fort Hatteras on the outer banks of North Carolina to check blockade running in the area. The ships sailed from Hampton Roads August 26, 1861, for the Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries, the first important combined amphibious operation of the war. The next morning, "Harriet Lane", , and slipped close inshore to provide direct support to the landings, while heavier ships pounded the forts from deeper water. The last resistance was snuffed out the following afternoon, giving a badly needed boost to morale in the North, which had been disheartened a month before by defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run. Of greater importance was the fact that this combined operation opened the inland waterways to Union ships and gave the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron a base deep in Southern waters.