Battle of Elizabeth City The Battle of Elizabeth City of the American Civil War was fought in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Roanoke Island . It took place on 10 February 1862 , on the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City , North Carolina . The participants were vessels of the U . S . Navy ' s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , opposed by vessels of the Confederate Navy ' s Mosquito Fleet ; the latter were supported by a shore - based battery of four guns at Cobb ' s Point ( now called Cobb Point ) , near the southeastern border of the town . The battle was a part of the campaign in North Carolina that was led by Major General Ambrose E . Burnside and known as the Burnside Expedition . The result was a Union victory , with Elizabeth City and its nearby waters in their possession , and the Confederate fleet captured , sunk , or dispersed . Background . Elizabeth City lies near the mouth of the Pasquotank River , where it flows into Albemarle Sound from the north . North of the city is the Dismal Swamp Canal . To the east is the southern segment of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal , separated from the Pasquotank River by only a narrow neck of land . Much of the food and forage delivered from North Carolina to southeastern Virginia was transported along these two canals . In particular , Norfolk , Virginia depended upon continued access to the canals for its subsistence . So long as the North Carolina Sounds remained in Confederate hands , Norfolk could be well supplied despite the blockading efforts of the Union Navy at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay . That changed , however , in early February 1862 . In a battle fought on 7 – 8 February , the joint operation of a Union Army division under Major General Ambrose E . Burnside and a naval flotilla under Flag Officer Louis M . Goldsborough captured Roanoke Island , a position in Croatan Sound that had previously shielded the sounds from Federal depredations . Earlier , Union ships trying to enforce the blockade on the canals would have had to enter Pamlico Sound through Hatteras Inlet , then pass several Confederate batteries on Roanoke Island before they could get into Albemarle Sound . With the elimination of the batteries , however , all that stood in the way of the Union Navy was the Mosquito Fleet of the Confederate States Navy . Prelude . Defense : the Mosquito Fleet . The first shots of the Burnside Expedition were fired on 7 February 1862 , in the Battle of Roanoke Island . On that first day of the two - day battle , a force of 19 Union gunboats bombarded , rather inconclusively , four Rebel forts facing Croatan Sound and eight ships of the Confederate States Navy . The Federal ships were parts of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron , commanded by Flag Officer Goldsborough . The Confederate vessels were drawn from a unit led by Flag Officer William F . Lynch , termed the " Mosquito Fleet " , intended to serve on Albemarle Sound and nearby waters . Two vessels of the Mosquito Fleet were not present : CSS " Appomattox " had been sent away to Edenton for supplies and did not return in time for the battle , and schooner CSS " Black Warrior " was left out , presumably because she lacked the mobility that steam power gave the rest of the fleet . The gunnery duel lasted from noon until sunset . The only significant casualty among the fleets was the loss of CSS " Curlew " , holed at the waterline and beached to avoid sinking ; when Roanoke Island was surrendered the next day , she was burned in order to keep her out of Federal hands . One other ship was damaged , but not by enemy action : CSS " Forrest " damaged her screw by running on a submerged obstacle , and was thereafter unable to move under her own power . The remainder of the Mosquito Fleet suffered only minimal damage . They had to retire at the end of the day , with " Forrest " in tow , solely because they had nearly run out of ammunition . Flag Officer Lynch took his fleet to Elizabeth City , to resupply and to repair " Forrest . " Failing to find ammunition to replenish his magazines , he sent Commander Thomas T . Hunter , former captain of CSS " Curlew " , to Norfolk . He later sent CSS " Raleigh " up the Dismal Swamp Canal for the same purpose . Hunter returned with enough to resupply only two ships ; Lynch divided it among all of his remaining serviceable ships . " Raleigh " , however , was not able to return in time . No further changes of status affected the Mosquito Fleet . On the eve of battle , Lynch had at his disposal six ships in the water , each with only enough shot and powder to be able to fire ten times . His flagship , " Sea Bird " , carrying two guns , was a converted sidewheel steamer . Three of his other vessels were former tugs : " Appomattox " and " Ellis " , each with two guns , and " Beaufort " , with only one . " Fanny " , with two guns , had been a transport vessel used by the United States Army until she was captured by Confederate forces near Cape Hatteras . The last vessel , CSS Black Warrior , a schooner that had been pressed into service only four days before the battle , was armed with two 32 - pounder guns . In addition to the eleven guns of his fleet , Lynch counted on the four guns of the Cobb ' s Point battery for support . Offense : the Union fleet . The surrender of Roanoke Island on 8 February included all the Rebel forts that had faced on Croatan Sound , so they would no longer be able to prevent passage of Union ships from Pamlico into Albemarle Sound . Flag Officer Goldsborough therefore ordered his gunboats to pursue the Mosquito Fleet and destroy it . Although none of his vessels had been seriously injured in the bombardment of the preceding day , some were damaged enough that he decided not to include them in his order . Fourteen ships remained , however , and they carried a total of 37 guns . Goldsborough himself did not accompany the pursuit ; in his stead was Commander Stephen C . Rowan . The fourteen were all , like their Confederate counterparts , converted from civilian vessels in the first days of the war . Rowan ' s flagship , , , , , and had all been sidewheel steamers before being acquired by the Navy . was also a sidewheel steamer , and like two of her opponents was a former tug . Two other sidewheel vessels , and , had been ferries . The remaining five ships , , , , , and were screw steamers . If Captain Lynch had known that the Federal fleet faced a shortage of ammunition very much like his own , he perhaps would have altered his tactics , although the outcome would likely have been the same . As it was , Cdr . Rowan ordered the captains in his fleet to conserve their ammunition . They were told to use ramming and boarding , so far as was possible , to disable or capture the enemy ships . On 9 February , Rowan ' s gunboats passed the now - silent guns of Croatan Sound and crossed Albemarle Sound . Darkness fell as they approached Elizabeth City , so they anchored for the night . Battle . Lynch used the time that the Union flotilla was anchored to arrange his own ships for the coming battle . He decided to base his position on the battery of four guns at Cobb ' s Point , placing schooner CSS " Black Warrior " opposite the point , and his five remaining steamships in line across the river a short distance upstream . He took this position because he expected the Union to try to reduce the battery before proceeding , as they had done three days previously in the opening phase of the Battle of Roanoke Island . His final instructions to his captains included the order not to let the ships fall into enemy hands ; if all else failed , they should try to escape , or else destroy their vessels . At dawn on 10 February , Lynch made his first visit to the Cobb ' s Point battery , to coordinate its defense with his fleet . He found it manned by only seven militiamen and a single civilian . Because the battery was the strong point of his planned defense , he was constrained to order Lieutenant Commanding William Harwar Parker , captain of CSS " Beaufort " , to come ashore with most of his crew to man the guns . He left only enough on the ship to take her up the canal . With the additional men , only three of the four guns could be manned . When battle was joined , the militiamen promptly deserted ; henceforth , only two guns could be used against the enemy . The battery turned out to be irrelevant . Because his ammunition was low and his mission was to destroy the Rebel fleet , Rowan ordered his ships to bypass the battery . Parker and his men got off a few wild shots that did no harm , but they found that their guns would not bear once the Federal fleet was upstream . They therefore could only watch as their ships were destroyed by the attacking Federal fleet . First of the Confederate fleet to be lost was schooner " Black Warrior " . She was fired on by the entire attacking force as they passed the Cobb ' s Point battery , so her crew abandoned her and set her afire . Likewise , " Fanny " was run ashore and burned . A boarding party from captured CSS " Ellis " in hand - to - hand combat . Her captain would have blown up " Ellis " , but a black coal heaver discovered the charges and revealed them to the boarding party . CSS " Sea Bird " attempted to escape , but was run down and sunk by . CSS " Beaufort " and " Appomattox " made good their escape into the Dismal Swamp Canal . There , in the final irony , " Appomattox " was found to be too wide to pass through a lock , so she had to be burned . CSS " Forrest " , on the stocks to repair the damaged screw she had sustained on 8 February , was burned , along with an unnamed and uncompleted gunboat . CSS " Raleigh " was still at Norfolk , so she was not harmed . She and " Beaufort " were the only vessels in the Mosquito Fleet to escape either capture or destruction . Casualties were modest . The attacking Federal fleet lost two men killed and seven wounded , while the Rebels lost in all four killed , six wounded , and 34 captured . Quarter Gunner John Davis was awarded the congressional medal of honor for his actions on board the during the engagement . Aftermath . When they learned of the destruction of their fleet and the surrender of the Cobb ' s Point battery , Confederate troops retreating from Roanoke Island set fires in Elizabeth City , acting under orders from Brigadier General Henry A . Wise to destroy the town . About two blocks had been consumed when sailors from the Union flotilla arrived and were able to save the rest . The Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal was blocked near its entrance at the North River . The retreating Rebels started the obstruction . It was completed by the victorious Federal forces , acting under the orders of Flag Officer Goldsborough . The town of Edenton was taken without loss of blood on 12 February by four of Commander Cowan ' s gunboats . Two schooners were captured and another destroyed , and eight cannon were seized . More generally , there was no longer a Confederate presence on Albemarle Sound . It remained so for most of the rest of the war ; the only significant challenge to Union dominance was the short - lived experiment of CSS " Albemarle " in the summer of 1864 . Although Norfolk was not attacked , it was isolated and increasingly worthless to the Confederate Army . In May , the city was abandoned . Order of Battle . Confederate : CSS " Sea Bird " , sidewheel steamer , flagship CSS " Fanny " , steamer CSS " Appomattox " , tug boat CSS " Ellis " , tug boat CSS " Beaufort " , tug boat CSS " Black Warrior " , schooner Union : USS " Delaware " , sidewheel steamer , flagship USS " Hetzel " , sidewheel steamer USS " Isaac N . Semour " , sidewheel steamer USS " John L . Lockwood " , sidewheel steamer USS " Ceres " , sidewheel steamer USS " Shawsheen " , sidewheel steamer USS " Commodore Perry " , sidewheel steamer USS " Morse " , sidewheel steamer USS " Louisiana " , screw steamer USS " Underwriter " , screw steamer USS " Valley City " , screw steamer USS " Whitehead " , screw steamer USS " Henry Brinker " , screw steamer Notes . Abbreviations used in these notes :