HATTERAS INLET, Capture of. In the forenoon of 26 Aug. 1861, a Union fleet of seven vessels carrying 143 guns, under com mand of Flag-officer Silas H. Stringham, and three transports, carrying 930 men and a light battery, under command of General Butler, set sail from Hampton Roads. Next afternoon the fleet arrived off Hatteras Inlet, the entrance to Pamlico Sound, which was guarded by Forts Hatteras and Clark, built by North Carolina on the south end of Hatteras Island, and mounting respectively 25 and 5 heavy guns. The forts, which were garrisoned by over 700 men, were under command of Major Andrews. At 10A. rt. of the 28th Stringham began the bombardment of the forts, and a little later about 300 troops, with two howitzers, were landed on the island above the forts. Fort Clark was silenced be fore noon, the greater part of its garrison re treating to Fort Hatteras, some escaping from the island by boats. At night the fleet withdrew,
but renewed the attack upon Fort Hatteras early in the morning of the 29th, drove the gunners from their guns to the shelter of the bomb-proofs, and before noon the fort sur rendered, after a loss of 30 killed and wounded. The Union loss was one wounded. Stringham and Butler returned to Hampton Roads, leav ing three vessels as a sea-force and detach ments of the Ninth and Twentieth New York and the Union coast-guard, under Col. R. C. Hawkins, to garrison the captured forts. The immediate results of the expedition were the capture of the two strong forts with their garrisons of 715 men, 31 heavy guns, 1,000 stand of arms and the possession of the best sea en trance to the inland waters of North Carolina. Consult The Century Company's 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil (Vol. I) ; Maclay, 'History of the Navy) (Vol. II).