EDENTON
★ ★ ★
Battle of Albemarle Sound
On May 5, 1864, the Confederate
ironclad ram CSS Albemarle under
Commander James W. Cooke, with
the gunboats Cotton Plant and
Bombshell , steamed out of the
Roanoke River into Batchelor’s Bay
and Albemarle Sound before you,
bound for New Bern. Dead ahead,
however, waited the U.S. Navy gun¬
boats Ceres, Commodore Hull, and
Whitehead, and the transport Ida
May. Beyond lay the double-ended
Battle of Albemarle Sound
steamers Mattabesett,
Sassacus, Wyalusing,
and Miami. Union Capt.
Melancton Smith, com¬
manding the fleet, intended
to sink Albemarle. After dispatch-
fiyIM
Crew, USS Miami
Point. During the three-
hour battle, Bombshell
sustained heavy damage
and surrendered. Albemar¬
le was rammed and almost
sunk by Sassacus but fired point¬
ing Cotton Plant upriver, Albemarle blank into the steamer’s boiler,
and Bombshell engaged the Feder-
als off Chowan County’s Sandy
disabling it. Albemarle then escaped
upriver to Plymouth for repairs.
DIVIDED LOYALTIES
Unionist sentiment was strong among eastern
North Carolinians. The U.S. Navy presence in
Albemarle sound began early in 1862, and many
loyal men, both white and African American,
enlisted. They included slaves and freedmen
familiar with the Sound and its tributaries, who
served as gunners, powder boys, cooks, and
mechanics. Chowan County natives Henry John¬
son, John Paxton, and Daniel Spruel sailed
aboard Miami .
Other Edenton and Chowan County men
joined local Confederate units, and many sym¬
pathizers moved farther inland. Chowan County
Confederates included Col. James K. Marshall,
Lt. Col. John C. Badham, Maj. Tristim L. Skin¬
ner, Capt. William Badham, Jr., Capt. John A.
Benbury, Capt. Edward A. Small, Lt. John M.
Jones, and Lt. Blake B. Hoskins. Edenton resi¬
dents donated household, school, church, and
courthouse bells to cast four bronze cannons for
Capt. Badham’s Edenton “Bell Battery,” Co. B,
North Carolina Light Artillery Battalion.
Capt. William Badham, Jr.
Edenton Bell Battery
