North Carolina's Wooden Gunboats

From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina.

Earlier this week, I used this article to write about North Carolina wooden gunboats in the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 in my history and 1812 blogs.  A third era of these ships was in the Civil War when they were used to protect the state when it was part of the Confederacy.

According to the article, Civil War gunboats took two types.  Some were prewar vessels adopted to military use, many serving in North Carolina's Navy, the so-called "Mosquito Fleet," which was destroyed during and after the fighting around Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City in 1862.

The other type were custom-built under contract to the Confederate government in various coastal towns, primarily Washington, North Carolina.  But with the fall of that place and Elizabeth City to Union forces in the spring of 1862, led to the termination of several plans to build wooden gunboats in the state.

One Washington gunboat was apparently taken up the Tar River and hidden in a creek in Pitt County.  When it couldn't be completed, it was burned.  This wreck has been studied by underwater archaeologists since 1973.

There You Have the Wooden Gunboats.  --Old B-Runner