These small gunboats, as stated before, were of no match for regular Union warships, but posed a problem for Lincoln's decision to invade North Carolina's mainland. To do so they would have to control the state's sounds and that required the destruction of the state's fleet.
With the capture of Roanoke Island by the Union in February 1862, Confederate commander of the fleet William F. Lynch, in an effort to destroy his vessels (which now numbered six ships), moved them to Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River, but to no avail.
At Cobb's Point, a Union fleet under Cmdr. S.C. Rowan destroyed all of the fleet except the Beaufort which escaped to Norfolk, Virginia.
All Bite, Little Sting. --Old B-R-er
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