Albemarle & Chesapeake Canal

Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal. Supply Route for Blue and Gray. , Beginning in the 1820s, "canal fever" swept the country and Americans built dozens of canals to improve transportation. Some, such as the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal that was completed in 1859, are still in use today. As constructed, this canal consisted of two "cuts," the 8.5-mile-long Virginia section between the Elizabeth and North Landing Rivers, and this 5.5-mile-long North Carolina cut that joined Currituck Sound with the North River. The completed canal allowed vessels to move from Norfolk all the way to the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds., Confederate ships transported supplies on the canal to build Forts Hatteras and Clark on the Outer Banks. Between August 1861 and January 1862 more than 200 military vessels passed through the canal. After the February 1862 Battle of Elizabeth City, the Confederates scuttled ships to block the North Carolina cut. The Federals, ironically, had the same idea to stall Confederate traffic. They sent five vessels to the North River towing ships to be sunk "to obstruct the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal," only to find that the Confederates had already begun the tasks. After the Union occupation of Norfolk in May 1862, southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina were largely in Federal hands, and the canal was reopened to Union patrol and supply vessels., [Sidebar:] , On February 9, 1864, U.S. Congressman George W. Julian (Indiana), a member on the Joint Committee on Conduct of the War, was on his way to Roanoke Island aboard the mail boat Fawn to investigate reports of sutlers price-gouging the soldiers to whom they sold goods. Confederates attacked the vessel near here, killed or wounded 7 people, and captured 29 passengers including Julian. They burned Fawn and soon released Julian, who continued to Roanoke Island., [Sidebar:] , At dusk on May 16, 1863, 30 Confederate partisans jumped from the nearby Coinjock bridge here onto the side-wheel steamer Arrow and captured the crew, then steered the vessel alongside the steamer Emily and captured it. The partisans continued flying the Stars and Stripes as they steamed past a Union gunboat up Albemarle Sound and the Chowan and Blackwater Rivers to Franklin, Va. The exploit made headlines in the North Carolina newspapers.