From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.
The other day I mentioned North Carolina's fleet of gunboats that had the whimsical name of "Mosquito Fleet that made up the North Carolina Navy in the early years of the war. It got its name from the relative small sizes and lack of ordnance on the ships. They weren't really considered a serious threat to regular Union warships.
They were under orders to protect the state's sounds and rivers but also seize Union ships.
The sidewheel steamer Winslow was the first ship commissioned followed by the Beaufort, Raleigh and Ellis. All were propeller-driven small river boats originally intended for canal use and the last three mounted just one gun each.
Things weren't much better when it came to crews which consisted of soldiers and farmers; very little sailor experience there.
Even so, according to he article, these little ships had enough success, especially the Winslow, that Northern ships were attracted to the North Carolina coast in 1862 and 1862.
Bite Like a Mosquito. --Old B-Runner
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