AUGUST 26TH, 1861: Union squadron under Flag officer Stringham: USS Minnesota, Wabash, Monticello, Pawnee, revenue Cutter Harriet Lane, U.S. tug Fanny and two transports carrying about 900 troops under Major General Butler, departed Hampton Roads (later joined by the USS Susquehanna and Cumberland) for Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, for the first combined action of the war.
Hatteras Inlet was the main channel into Pamlico Sound and the most convenient entrance for blockade runners bringing supplies to the Confederate Army in Virginia.
The Navy early recognized the strategic importance of the inlet and invited the Army to cooperate in its capture. The operation was designed to check Confederate privateering and to begin the relentless assault from the sea that would divert a large portion of Confederate manpower from the main armies
--Old B-Runner
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