N.C. and the Southside: South Mills and the Dismal Swamp Canal
April 19, 1862
The Dismal Swamp Canal opened in 1805 and immediately assumed an important role in the southern economy. Running from the Albemarle Sound to Norfolk and the James River it quickly became an important inland waterway for the movement of goods and materials north and south. The Dismal Swamp Canal is the oldest part of a larger system of inland canals that made it possible to move from New Jersey to Texas without going out to sea.
In this Google Map supplied by Robert Long you can see the the Dismal Swamp Canal and the battlefield. He has included embeded photographs. including Civil War Trail markers. Refresh the maps after opening to access the features. The Union was right to be worried.
During the Civil War the canal took on an increased importance when the Confederate Army seized the Norfolk Shipyard. The obvious question arouse with the shipyards capture, what could they hope to do with it? The Union held Forts Monroe and Wool at the mouth of the James River and between them and their big guns, nothing iron clad or not, was going in or out of the James.
Fort Wool from Fort Monroe. These two forts sealed off the James to the Confederates, even their ironclad did not try to run past them.
After the First Battle of Bull Run or Manassas, whichever you prefer, Gideon Welles Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy realized that the only way to defeat the South would be cut it off from the rest of the world. Anaconda was launched with the seizure of Port Royal half way between Charlotte and Savannah as coaling and repair center for the fleet. Other attacks and seizures soon followed until the Atlantic Coast was bottled and there was nothing that the Confederacy could do about it.
Except that there was this inland waterway open from the Norfolk shipyards south, through the Dismal Swamp, to the Albemarle Sound and further south behind the barrier islands to South Carolina. Suddenly a fleet of non-ocean going iron clad Confederate ships became a possiblity and a real threat to the whole Union strategy. To counter the treat Union commander General Burnside ordered General Reno to take 3,000 men from Roanoke Island and seize and destroy the locks at South Mills.
On April 19, 1862 the Reno's force ran into 750 Confederates three miles out of town, and for the next five hours they fought along the north end of Sawyers Lane. Running low of ammunition and close to being out flanked the Confederates fell back a mile to Joy Creek and took up new positions. This was about all the maneuvering that happened; the Union did not choose to follow. Rather than continue the fight Reno decided to call it a day and led his men back to Elizabeth City. Once again, a the Union Army snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at the last moment.
This is the only sign or identified location of the South Mills Battlefield.
General Reno's headquarters during the battle of South Mills. It belongs to Earl Meigg's family.
Photo Credit: Robert Long
Note the open flat nature of the battlefield edged by hedgerows of tree. A good place for defense, a costly place for attack.
The threat posed by the canal to the blockade ended when the Union recaptured Norfolk. General Burnside continued to consolodate his position in North Carolina and largely through osmosis pushed the Confederates out of South Mills and into the swamp. Afterward the canal became a major transportation corridor for the Union Navy moving supplies south for maintenance of the blockade. So, for the North anyway, it was a good thing they didn't destroy the locks afterall. The Confederates launched attacks against the Union shipping from out in the swamp, eventually building up a hidden community out in the trees. The Confederates continued to trouble Union shipping until they were finally hunted down and destroyed in December of 1863.
Casualties: 114 US, 25 CS
Next: Indiantown