All Sunday afternoon, workers at the little wharf in Hamilton, North Carolina, had scurried about loading last-minute supplies and stores. Coal had been taken aboard earlier, and steam had been raised, but the banging and hammering in the engine room indicated that all was not ready with the newly commissioned Confederate States ironclad Albemarle.
Workmen had carried the last of the iron plates for the ship's armor on board and set up portable forges on the ship"s decks. They secured a line to a barge and loaded additional forges and extra material. By 1500 the afternoon of 17 April 1864-ready or not-the ship's commander ordered the lines cast off, and a small steamer nudged the bulky vessel into the middle of the Roanoke River. Because of the swiftness of the current, along with the many twists and turns in the river, the ironclad's captain directed that she steam stern-first downriver, dragging heavy chains from her bow. With the red and white Confederate ensign snapping in the Carolina breeze, the iron warship began her slow journey to Plymouth, near the river's mouth.
On 12 April, barely five days before, Confederate General Braxton Bragg had issued detailed orders from his Richmond office to Brigadier General Robert F. Hoke, instructing him to assemble a force for the attempted recapture of Plymouth.1 Late in 1861, the Outer Banks had fallen to Federal forces, and on 8 February 1862, a combined Union naval and ground assault secured Roanoke Island. With these losses, the sounds and rivers of the North Carolina coast were open to Federal invasion. By mid-1863, Federal forces were firmly entrenched at strategic towns in the eastern part of the state. Their gunboats patrolled Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, while significant garrisons were ensconced behind heavy fortifications at New Bern on the Neuse River, Washington on the Tar, and Plymouth on the Roanoke. Additional Union troops occupied Elizabeth City, north of Albemarle Sound, and other large garrisons were posted at Morehead City and Beaufort, North Carolina. From these enclaves, foraging parties fanned out across the neighboring counties.
This presence caused concern in Raleigh and Richmond. Located only two days' march from the westernmost Federal garrison were the tracks of the Wilmington & Weldon Rail Road. Along this line, from the seaport of Wilmington north to Virginia, moved the food, supplies, and ammunition that helped sustain General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. A disruption of the railroad could have fatal consequences for Lee's army¾and the Confederacy.2
The ironclad, if she could control the Roanoke River, would be instrumental in General Hoke's recapture of Plymouth and additional areas of eastern North Carolina. Hoke met with Commander James W. Cooke, the Albemarle's captain, at Hamilton to determine when she would be ready for battle. The ship had been moved from near Halifax, where she was built, downstream to Hamilton for completion to ease navigation problems caused by her deepening draught as her iron armor was added. Hoke outlined the importance of the ironclad's role in the coming campaign and promised additional mechanics. He also pledged assistance in getting the necessary sailors to man the warship. The urgency of the need for the ship, plus Hoke's persuasion, prompted Cooke to declare that if the promised mechanics and crewmen materialized, he would have the vessel ready in 15 days.The
Commander
James Wallace Cooke, born in 1812 in Beaufort near Cape Lookout on the North Carolina coast, was raised by an uncle after the death of his parents. At 16, he received an appointment to the Navy and trained as a midshipman on board the USS Guerierre. By 1841 he had attained the rank of lieutenant, but after 20 years of service, when it appeared that North Carolina would secede from the Union and join its sister Southern states, Cooke resigned his commission on 2 May 1861. Two days later he was appointed a lieutenant in the Virginia State Navy, and on 11 June 1861 was transferred to Confederate service.3
He commanded the gunboat CSS Ellis at the Battle of Roanoke Island. On 10 February 1862 at Elizabeth City, he was badly wounded and taken prisoner. Nineteen months later, in September 1863, he was exchanged, became eligible for active duty, and was selected to complete the ironclad.4
The Ship
The Albemarle was one of the best-built Confederate ironclad rams. She had been constructed at Edward's Ferry, which was little more than a cornfield along the Roanoke River downstream from Halifax. Her builder, Gilbert Elliott, wrote that the octagonal armored casemate was 60 feet long with its sides inclined at 35º. Six gun ports pierced the redoubt, one at each end and two on each broadside. Pine beams 12 by 13 inches formed the walls of the casemate, to which was bolted a horizontal layer of five-inch pine planks. These were covered by a layer of vertical four-inch oak planks. The shield's interior was dressed with a thin layer of smooth planking to protect the crew from splinters. The 2-inch thick by 7-inch wide armor plates were bolted onto the oak planks in two layers, the first laid horizontally, and the second vertically. The deck fore and aft of the casemate was covered with a layer of 2-inch iron, and a lattice of iron grates formed the top deck to provide light and ventilation for the gun deck.5The Confederate ram's armament consisted of two 6.4-inch double-banded Brooke rifles, mounted on pivot carriages, one forward, one aft. Each gun could be worked through any of the three ports at its respective end of the shield. Heavy iron shutters, which could be raised or lowered from inside the casemate, covered the ports when the guns were inboard. The rifled guns, designed by Confederate Commander John M. Brooke, were arguably among the finest naval weapons developed during the Civil War.6
Time for striking a blow in North Carolina was running out, for once the roads dried and the giant Union Army began to move in Virginia, Hoke would be forced to return his troops to Lee's army. Cooke was determined, therefore, to assure the attack's success. The additional mechanics arrived, and with their help, the work progressed at a breakneck pace. On 17 April 1864, the Navy Department in Richmond received a cryptic telegram:
The C.S. Steamer Albemarle was placed in commission this day at 2 o'clock P.M. The officers ordered to her hitherto awaiting her completion will be entered on your books as on duty afloat from this date inclusive. I am very respectfully,
J. W. Cooke, Commanding C.S.N.7
As he had promised General Hoke just 15 days earlier, the ironclad was on her way.
The ship had not gone far before the steamer Cora, carrying the 20 experienced sailors promised by Hoke, caught up with her. These navy men, who increased the crew to 50, were much needed, for the only crewmen on board were Tar Heel volunteers from Hoke's North Carolina Brigade. At 1700, Cooke stopped briefly at Williamston, where non-essential equipment and workers were put ashore.
As day slipped into night, the pilots were wary to prevent the big ironclad from running aground as she pushed on down the river. Suddenly, as Cooke later wrote:
At 10 o'clock . . . a portion of the machinery broke down. The damage consisted in the wrenching up of the bolts that fastened the main coupling of the center shaft. Having taken the precaution to carry a portable forge down with me in a flat, we were enabled to repair damages and get underway after about six hours' delay. Having proceeded some distance down the river the rudder head broke off, and another delay of four hours was sustained. . . . But despite these difficulties, I anchored 3 miles above Plymouth on Monday night at 10 o'clock.8
The Gauntlet
General Hoke's command had left Tarboro on 15 April and, by 1600 on the 17th, arrived within five miles of Plymouth, where his men routed a company of Union cavalry and captured several enemy pickets. The next morning, Hoke launched attacks in earnest against the well-entrenched Federals defending Plymouth. The approximately 2,500 Union troops fought with tenacity, and by late in the day, little progress had been made. At around 1800, Hoke's Brigade assaulted Fort Wessells, while 14 Confederate cannon poured their fire into Fort Williams. Night fell, and the light of the streaking shells illuminated the sky. A Richmond correspondent wrote:
The sight was magnificent—the screaming, hissing shells meeting and passing each other through the sulphurous air, appeared like blazing comets with their burning fuses, and would burst with frightful noise, scattering their fragments as thick as hail.
Confederate troops managed to claw their way to within 200 yards of the enemy's works, but intense Federal fire stopped any further advance. The rain of shot and shell was too much, and by 0100, the Southern forces were compelled to withdraw.9
The constant and accurate fire from four Federal gunboats-Miami, Southfield, Whitehead, and Ceres-stationed in the river behind the town, was particularly devastating. Lieutenant Commander Charles W. Flusser, the flotilla commander, flew his flag from Miami, the largest gunboat. For months he had been hearing rumors about the Rebel ram under construction upriver. He now found them to be true. In a brief dispatch to his superior, Rear Admiral S. P. Lee, he wrote: "We have been fighting here all day. About sunset the enemy made a general advance along our whole line. They have been repulsed. . . . The Ram will be down tonight or tomorrow. I fear for the protection of the town."10
Elliott, the Albemarle's builder, was on board the ironclad and later wrote about her arrival above Plymouth:
She came to anchor about three miles above Plymouth, and a mile or so above the battery [Fort Grey] on the bluff at Warren's Neck, near Thoroughfare Gap, where torpedoes, sunken vessels, piles, and other obstructions had been placed. An exploring expedition was sent out, under command of one of the lieutenants, which returned in about two hours, with the report that it was considered impossible to pass the obstructions. Thereupon the fires were banked, and the officers and crew not on duty retired to rest. . . .
[I] accompanied Captain Cooke as a volunteer aide, and feeling intensely dissatisfied with the apparent intention of lying at anchor all that night, and believing that it was "then or never" with the ram if she was to accomplish anything. . . requested permission to make a personal investigation.11
The builder, along with pilot John Luck and two experienced seamen volunteers, set out to make soundings of the obstructions. Finding ten feet and more of water over them-Albemarle drew eight feet-they reported to the captain who "instantly aroused his men, gave the order to get up steam, slipped the cables in his impatience to be off, and started down the river."12
This time, the Albemarle was pointed downstream with no restraint from dragging chains. Beyond the obstructions were but a fort and a gun battery between the ironclad and the Union ships. At 0330, Fort Grey, on the south bank of the river about one mile above Plymouth, let loose with shot from its 100-pounder Parrott rifle accompanied by sporadic small-arms fire. Elliott reported that "Protected by the iron-clad shield, to those on board the noise made by the shot and shell as they struck the boat sounded no louder that pebbles thrown against an empty barrel."13 The ironclad did not return fire and continued to glide down the Roanoke past Battery Worth, at the western edge of Plymouth. The battery's big 200-pounder Parrott gun did not fire, perhaps because the dark iron specter remained hidden in the shadows as she hugged the north shore. After passing the battery, lookouts were posted, one atop the casemate and another on the main deck forward.
The Battle
Once opposite Plymouth, Commander Cooke ordered the gun port shutters opened. Crewmen heaved on large levers that, through a chain connection, swung the heavy iron shutters down to one side.14 At about the same time, the lookouts spotted the running lights of two approaching steamers in mid-stream a short distance down the river. Cooke had the Brooke rifles charged with solid shot and their crews standing by for orders.
The two approaching vessels were the gunboat Miami to starboard of Southfield. Flusser had lashed the two together with heavy spars and loose chains in anticipation of snaring the Albemarle between them and pounding her with their broadsides. In the fading moonlight, Cooke initially failed to notice the chains, but when he did he took decisive action. Holding close to the river's north shore, he rang the engine room for full speed. The Miami and Southfield, because of their deeper draft, kept to the middle of the river. At the optimum moment, Cooke ordered an immediate turn to starboard. At a 30º angle, and at full speed-albeit only about five knots-the Confederate ironclad charged the Union warships. Within seconds, the Albemarle was on them. Both Union ships opened fire. As the ironclad pushed across the bow of the Miami, her port knuckle scraped the Miami's port bow, and at almost the same instant, slammed into the Southfield's starboard bow. The Albemarle's massive ram smashed through the Federal ship's hull and continued through her forward storeroom and into the fire room, ten feet inside the gunboat.15
Immediately, Southfield began to sink. At the moment of impact, Albemarle's engines had been thrown into reverse. They labored to back her away, but she failed to move. When the ironclad struck the two enemy vessels, their forward chains were torn apart, and with Miami almost parallel to the Confederate ironclad, her port broadside guns began a thunderous fire against Albemarle's armored casemate.
On Southfield, Bluejackets made their way toward her stern, where they could scramble over the rail onto the Miami. Some jumped into the water, while others quickly lowered a small boat. The gunboat was going down rapidly, and with her weight on the Rebel ram's bow, the ironclad was going down with her.
All the while, Miami continued her fire from just a few feet away. In his zeal to destroy Albemarle, Flusser personally fired the first three shots from a IX-inch Dahlgren on the bow. The third was his last. The shell, with a ten-second fuse, slammed against the iron casemate and rebounded. It exploded over the gun, instantly killing the commander and wounding several of his crew.
Unable to use his main weapons, Cooke ordered those able to the top of the casemate where they skirmished with the Miami's crew. During this melee, one of the ram's crew inside the casemate, a sailor named Harris, fell dead of a pistol shot. His curiosity about the battle outside had led him to take a glimpse through a gun port. He was Albemarle's lone casualty.
The Southfield, meanwhile, was almost on the bottom, and the Albemarle's bow was still firmly wedged in her side. Alarmed Rebel crew men watched as water began to pour through the forward gun port. Finally, as the Union gunboat touched bottom, she rolled slightly to port, freeing the ironclad. Confederate sailors scrambled from the roof to the gun deck, where they opened fire on Miami with their forward Brooke.16
Acting Master William N. Welles, Miami's executive officer, had second thoughts about engaging the Confederate vessel now that she was free from the Southfield. Casting off the remaining chains that bound his ship to the sunken gunboat, he turned downstream toward the protection of other Federal vessels in Albemarle Sound. Cooke, meanwhile, ordered the ironclad's boats lowered, and eight enemy sailors were plucked from the river. As a tinge of light in the eastern sky announced the daybreak, the naval battle of Plymouth was over.17
The Aftermath
With no Federal vessels within sight of Plymouth, the Confederate Navy once again controlled the waters around the North Carolina town. Cooke was at a loss, however, as to his next course of action, for he had no idea what General Hoke's plans were. He later wrote:
Not having heard anything from the army, I laid about one mile below the town, anticipating an attack on the town, and at 11 o'clock a.m., being again at a loss to know what course to pursue, Mr. Elliott again volunteered and took Pilot Hopkins with a boat's crew and proceeded down to the mouth of the river and up a creek in the rear of Plymouth, distant from the boat by water about 12 miles. He communicated with General Hoke and sent me dispatches.18
During the day on 19 April, Hoke's troops made little progress, but Albemarle trained her guns on Battery Worth, and through the afternoon and all during the night, the Confederate ram maintained a slow but steady fire on the Federal fortification. The following morning, Hoke launched a coordinated attack from the east along the river, while Albemarle anchored off Jefferson Street with an unobstructed view of Fort Williams. The ironclad's gunners, with their large Brooke rifles, proceeded to methodically destroy the key to the Federal defenses. The steamer Cotton Plant had followed Albemarle down from Hamilton, and sharpshooters, who were posted on her deck behind protective iron plates, joined in the battle. At 1000, a white flag appeared over Fort Williams, and Brigadier General Henry W. Wessells accepted terms presented by General Hoke and surrendered all U.S. forces at Plymouth.19
On 20 April, Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory reported to the Confederate Congress that
The signal success of this brilliant naval engagement is due to the admirable skill and courage displayed by Commander Cooke, his officers and men, in handling and fighting his ship against a greatly superior force of men and guns.20
The Albemarle's work, however, had just begun, and before it was completed, Union Lieutenant William B. Cushing, using a torpedo-tipped spar, would send her to the bottom.
1. Robert G. Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Publishing Co., Inc., 1994), 166.
2. John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1963), 173.
3. Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke, 64-65.
4. J. Thomas Scharf, History of the Confederate States Navy (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1877), 408.
5. Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke, 102.
6. Gilbert Elliott, "The Career of the Confederate Ram Albemarle," Century magazine, July 1888, 422.
7. Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke, 166.
8. U.S. Navy Dept., Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1894-1927) [Hereafter cited as ORN], Ser. I, IX: 656.
9. Barrett, Civil War in North Carolina, 216
10. ORN, I, IX: 637.
11. Elliott, "Career of the Confederate Ram," 422.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke, 177.
15. ORN, I, IX: 656-658.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Elliott, Ironclad of the Roanoke, 185.
20. ORN, I, IX: 658.