in the forts had eight companies of the Seventeenth North Carolina regiment, Col. W. F. Martin, and some detachments of the Tenth North Carolina artillery. The whole force on the first day of the engagement amounted to 580[1] men. On the second day the Ellis[2] landed some reinforcements, raising the number to 718. The post was commanded by Maj. W. S. G. Andrews. These forces were divided between Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark, which were about three-quarters of a mile apart. Fort Hatteras the position of which was so good that the enemy’s engineer officer said after its capture, "With guns of long range it can successfully defend itself from any fleet" was a square redoubt with pan coupes at all the salients, and was constructed of sand, revetted with turf from adjoining marshes. Instead of being defended by guns "with long range, it mounted twelve[3] smooth-bore 32-pounders. The other, Fort Clark, was a redoubt of Irregular figure, and mounted five 32-pounders and two small guns. Its supply of ammunition was expended early in the engagement.
On the morning after the fleet’s arrival, 318 men and
two pieces of artillery, under cover of the ships guns, were landed "without opposition from the Confederates, whose garrison was unequal to defense and only large enough to give importance to its capture."[4] During the landing of these troops and until late in the day, when a rising gale drove the ships out to sea, the fleet fiercely bombarded the forts. In this engagement Boynton, as quoted by Hawkins,[5] asserts that Commodore Stringham introduced the system of ships firing while in motion instead of waiting to fire from anchorage, a system adopted by Farragut and which has, in the Spanish-
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