After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's declaration of a blockade, Bankhead was ordered to , a side-wheel steamer carrying fifteen guns launched in 1850. In August "Susquahanna" participated in the joint army-navy expedition to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. On August 28 the Union naval force, including "Susquahanna", bombarded the forts guarding Hatteras Inlet as troops landed. The following day the bombardment continued until the forts finally surrendered. Bankhead criticized the way the attacks were carried out and later wrote Captain Gustavus Fox, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and an old shipmate, that the forts could have been taken in much less time: