WASHINGTON, Feb. 27. – The Navy Department has received dispatches from Commodore Goldsboro, dated the 20th inst. He had received the official accounts of the visits of our vessels to Edenton and to the Carrituck canal.
The light house at Cape Hatteras may now be lighted with perfect safety.
The name of the men of war destroyed by our vessels since the fleet reached Hatteras Island are as follows. The Sea Bird, flag steamer; the Curlew, and the Fanny, steamers; the Black Warrior, a schooner, the steamer Ellis, captured; a new gun-boat on the stocks at Elizabeth City was also destroyed, making seven vessels in all. Each of the first six were remarkably well armed as gun-boats. All of them, excepting the Curlew, were destroyed or captured in the attack on Elizabeth City.
As our forces took undisturbed possession of Edenton, part of a flying artillery regiment, variously estimated at from one hundred and fifty to three hundred, fled precipitately without firing a shot. Many of the inhabitants also left in consequence. There are no fortifications at or in the water approaches to Edenton.
Among the results of the expedition are the destruction of cannon and one schooner on the stocks at Edenton. Two schooners were captured in the Sound – one having four thousand bushels of corn. Six bales of cotton were taken from the custom house wharf. There were no public stores in the town. The custom house was empty.
Commodore Goldsboro says he remained two hours abreast the town and was visited by the authorities and others, many of whom professed sentiments of loyalty to the old Union.
A proclamation dated the 18th inst. and signed jointly by Commodore Goldsboro and General Burnside, to the people of North Carolina says, the mission of the joint expedition is not to invade any rights, but to assert the authority of the United States and to close with them the desolating war brought upon the State by comparatively few men in their midst.
The Proclamation concludes as follows: We invite you in the name of the Constitution, and in that of virtuous loyalty and civilization to separate yourselves at once from their malign influence and return at once to your allegiance and not to compel us to resort further to the force under our control. The Government asks only that its authority may be recognized, and we repeat that in no manner or way does it desire to interfere with your laws, constitutionally established, your institutions of any kind whatever, your property of any sort, or your usages in any respect.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 1, 1862, p. 3
