Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and the Civil War: A History of Battle and Occupation

It was February of 1862. Although the Civil War was now nearly a year old, the armies had done little more than feint and skirmish. The war at sea, however, was an entirely different proposition. The Union navy's blockade of the Confederate seaboard was ruthless and unremitting. With no outlets for its agricultural staples and no ability to receive desperately needed European manufactures, the Southern economy was asphyxiating. It was into this backdrop that a Union naval assault force brea...