Bridge Jumping Confederates Capture Vessel

 From the HMdb site Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal Military Supply Route.

I have been writing about the capture of U.S. Representative George Washington Julian near Coinjack, N.C.,  and while researching found this item of interest.

On May 16, 1863,  thirty Confederate partisans  from Pasquotank County jumped from the nearby Coinjack Bridge onto the side-wheel steamer Arrow and captured the crew then steered the vessel alongside the steamer Emily as if nothing had happened.

The partisans took both ships, flying the Stars and Stripes, up Albemarle Sound, Chowan River, and the Blackwater River to Franklin, Virginia,

En route,  they picked up five African Americans who hailed  them not knowing the crews were Confederates.  Now, that was embarrassing.

The exploit made headlines in the North Carolina newspapers.

--Old B-Runner