Civil War Forts at Hatteras

Early in the Civil War, the Confederacy built two forts, Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark, in Hatteras Inlet on North Carolina's strategically located Outer Banks. They hoped to protect the important activity of raiding Northern commercial ships to insure supplies to the Confederacy and the South.

However, North Carolina had problems properly staffing the forts. After being one of the last states to join the Confederacy, North Carolina had raised and supplied 22 infantry regiments, but 16 of them had been sent to fight in campaigns in Virginia. Only a part of the 7th regiment was available to defend the two forts. If needed, reinforcements would have to come from Beaufort, a distance to the south.


In the first combined efforts of the United States army and the navy, federal forces launched an attack on the lightly defended forts on August 28, 1861 and took them on August 29th.  In the battle, the navy used the first blockading techniques. The Union maintained the forts throughout the war, reducing raiding in the area and giving the folks at home something to cheer about after their demoralizing defeat at Bull Run.

______________________________________