Feb. 10, 1862

Feb. 10, 1862: THE BATTLE OF ELIZABETH CITY, No. Carolina. Naval Battle. Commander Stephen Rowan of the U.S. Navy is detailed off with a squadron by Flag Officer Goldsborough to sail north into the now-open Albemarle Sound, toward the coastal towns of tidewater North Carolina. This morning they approach Elizabeth City, the oldest town in the state, and find Commodore William Lynch of the C.S. Navy there with his "mosquito fleet" of seven light vessels, with barely enough fuel and ammunition for them, and a skeleton crew in Fort Cobb. Rowan steams his 13 ships in past the fort, with the fort firing away. Rowan and the Union ships ignore the fort and steam into the sparse line of Rebel ships, arrayed on the river in front of the city’s waterfront. The USS Commodore Perry rams the CSS Seabird, sinking her. The CSS Ellis is captured, and three other Rebel ships are purposely run aground and burned by their own crews–the Powhatan, Fanny, and Forrest--and only 2 of the Rebel ships make their escape uprive into the Dismal Swamp and the canal leading to Norfolk. Union Victory.


Losses: U.S. 2 killed, 7 wounded


             C.S. 4 killed


—Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, issues an order to Flag Office David G. Farragut in the Gulf Squadron that Farragut is to take command of what Welles calls "the most important operation in the war"–that is, the capture of the mouth of the Mississippi River and the South’s largest city, New Orleans. Welles details the ships that will be made available to Farragut, including a flotilla of bomb ships–mortar schooner–and an army of 18,000 gathering at Ship Island off the coast of Mississippi. Welles concludes with these heartening words, indicating the U.S. government’s high hopes: "If successful, you open the way to the sea for the great West, never again to be closed. The rebellion will be riven in the centre, and the flag to which you have been so faithful will recover its supremacy in every State.


Very respectfully, etc., Gideon Welles."


—On this date, Lt. Silas Phelps of the Tennessee River Squadron, reports on a raid he made up the river with the three "timberclad" gunboats Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington, as far south as Florence, Alabama. The river is in Union hands deep into the Confederate interior now. On the raid, Phelps and his flotilla captured and burned river steamers, burned bridges, captured supplies, and even captured a half-finished Rebel ironclad.

--Private David L. Day, with the Union troops on Roanoke Island, writes in his diary about his first encounter with Confederate soldier prisoners:

Feb. 10. The prisoners are a motley looking set, all clothed (I can hardly say uniformed) in a dirty looking homespun gray cloth. I should think every man’s suit was cut from a design of his own. Some wore what was probably meant for a frock coat, others wore jackets or roundabouts; some of the coats were long skirted, others short; some tight fitting, others loose; and no two men were dressed alike. Their head covering was in unison with the rest of their rig; of all kinds, from stovepipe hats to coonskin caps; with everything for blankets, from old bedquilts, cotton bagging, strips of carpet to Buffalo robes. The Wise legion are a more soldierly looking set; they wear gray cloth caps of the same pattern, and long sheep’s gray overcoats with capes. Most of the officers are smart, good looking young men, wearing well-fitting gray uniforms, not unlike those of our own officers.  It is not dress altogether that makes the man or the soldier. I find among these chaps some pretty good fellows. . . . The boys are mixing in among the prisoners, talking over the fight, trading jack-knives, buttons and such small notions as they happen to have, and getting acquainted with each other.