Thomas J. Marcinko

FEDERAL OPERATIONS AT HATTERAS INLET, NORTH CAROLINA 1861.

(Under the direction of Professor David Long) Department of History, August 2000.

The purpose of this thesis is to detail the events that created Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, show the importance of the inlet in the commercial livelihood of the state prior to the Civil War, and relate the part it played in the first year of the war.  The geographic emergence of the inlet in eastern North Carolina and its rise as an important commercial port in state is traced through historical records, from both maps and charts and primary sources, before and during the war.  The development of two Confederate defensive installations preceded the military actions at the inlet.  The Confederates used the forts as a privateering and blockage-running base.  During 1861 a Federal amphibious assault on the forts resulted in a strategic and emotional victory for the North.  The importance of the victory for the Union combined with the inlet's strategic value as a passageway into the North Carolina sounds aided the Union greatly during 1861-2.  Despite military successes in North Carolina, after 1862 the Union did not attempt any further exploitation of its occupation in eastern North Carolina.