Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal

Opened in 1859 just before the Civil War, the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal connected the Elizabeth and North Landing Rivers in Virginia and Currituck Sound with the North River in North Carolina, allowing vessels to travel between Norfolk and Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. The canal carried supplies used to build Confederate Forts Hatteras and Clark on the Outer Banks, and between August 1861 and January 1862 more than 200 military vessels passed through it. After the Battle of Elizabeth City and the destruction of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in February 1862, Confederates scuttled ships to block the North Carolina cut, while Federals also sent vessels to obstruct the canal but found the blockage already underway. After the Union occupation of Norfolk, clearing those obstructions became a Federal priority, and with southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina largely under Federal control, the canal reopened for patrol and supply duties until the war's end. On May 16, 1863, thirty Confederate partisans from Pasquotank County seized the steamers Arrow and Emily near Coinjock Bridge and took them under the Stars and Stripes through Albemarle Sound, the Chowan River, and the Blackwater River to Franklin, Virginia, picking up five African Americans along the way who did not know the crews were Confederates. On February 9, 1864, Confederates attacked the mail boat Fawn on the canal, killed or wounded 7 people, captured 29 passengers including U.S. Congressman George W. Julian of Indiana, and burned the vessel before Julian was released at Elizabeth City and continued to Roanoke Island.

Coinjock, North Carolina · United States