The American Civil War - Chronologically

Feb. 10, 1862 The Battle of Elizabeth City (AKA the Battle of Cobb's Point) Cobb's Point on the Pasquotank River  and  Elizabeth City, NC Commander Stephen C. Rowan leading a Union flotilla  of 14 regular gunboats from the real America's Navy  vs. Flag Officer William F. Lynch commanding "The Mosquito Fleet ": small river steamers and tugs, each armed with one or two (at most) heavy cannons, formerly comprising the North Carolina Navy  * Burnside following-up his invasion of Roanoke Island, and insisting that invading mainland NC would first require complete suppression of the state's fledgling Navy. / Lynch retreats here from Roanoke after losing a few ships, trying to still defend the essential Dismal Swamp Canal . Only the Confederate Appomattox survived to defend the canal, but it turned out to be too wide to enter it, so the crew burned it - bit of a theme today.  The Fanny   dies the same way here too - as does another Confederate gunboat!...

Feb. 7, 1862 The Battle Of Roanoke Island Roanoke Island and Sound, Dare County, North Carolina A flotilla of gunboats of the Union Navy drawn from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough, a separate group of gunboats under Union Army control, and an army division led by Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside (Brig. Gen. John G. Foster led the First Brigade, Brig. Gen. Jesse L. Reno the Second, and Brig. Gen. John G. Parke the Third) vs. A group of gunboats from the Confederate Navy, the Mosquito Fleet, under Capt. William F. Lynch, and about 2,000 Confederate soldiers commanded locally by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise in some forts > Col. Henry M. Shaw surrenders * Opening phase of the  Burnside Expedition , itself a subset of Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan to close Southern ports. [I need to visit  the parts in Annapolis where this (and lots of other stuff) kicks-off from.] Also, some of that flotilla sunk on the way in a couple storms...