Pasquotank is yet another member of new senate district

Pasquotank County in northeastern North Carolina has a distinct geography. The county is nearly and neatly boxed in by the Albemarle Sound, the Pasquotank and Little rivers and the Great Dismal Swamp. 

Pasquotank is one of eight counties that make up the state senate’s new 1st District. Others are Carteret, Pamlico, Hyde, Dare, Perquimans, Chowan and Washington. Carteret is the largest, with a population of about 69,580. Pasquotank is second in size, with about 40,550 residents.

 

Almost 18,000 people reside in Elizabeth City, the county seat. “E-City” is the largest city in the Albemarle Sound region. 

The community was once known as Redding’s-on-the-Narrows but became Elizabeth Town in 1794 and then Elizabeth City in 1801. It was named for Elizabeth “Betsy” Taylor Relfe, who owned a swanky tavern in town. 

The Pasquotank River was the first waterway in America to receive an “Underground Railroad Network to Freedom” designation from the U.S. National Park Service in 2004. 

The historical marker at Waterfront Park in Elizabeth City mentions that the Pasquotank River “was cited in 35 runaway slave advertisements between 1791 to 1840, indicating that slaves (‘freedom seekers’) escaped on vessels traveling north to free territory or south to the West Indies.”

 

The North Carolina Navy made a valiant effort to defend Elizabeth City from Union invasion during the Civil War at the Battle of Elizabeth City fought in 1862 on the Pasquotank River, according to Paul Branch, a ranger at Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County. 

He said that Confederate Capt. William Francis Lynch, commander of the scant “Mosquito Fleet” of five small ships, prepared his vessels for battle on Feb. 8, 1862, less than two miles below Elizabeth City at Cobb’s Point, site of a small earthen fort with four 32-pound canons.

 

Capt. Lynch

In addition, a schooner named Black Warrior, armed with two 32-pounders, was anchored as a floating battery on the opposite side of the river. 

A Union flotilla of 14 gunboats, commanded by Capt. Stephen Clegg Rowan, entered the picture. The scorecard gave a huge weaponry advantage to the Union – 40 guns to 11.

 

Capt. Rowan

Rowan launched his offensive on Feb. 10, 1862, ascending the river from the Albemarle Sound. The Union gunboats easily breezed by the fort and fired on the schooner, immediately disabling it. The “Mosquito Fleet” was swatted aside, no match for the Union ships of war. 

One Confederate steamer, however, “managed to escape upriver and attempted to enter the Dismal Swamp Canal to reach Norfolk, Va.,” Branch said. “Incredibly, as the vessel tried to enter the mouth of the canal, it was found to be two inches too wide to enter.” Ouch. 

Branch reported that “the losses in the unequal battle were light: two Union sailors killed and seven wounded; four Confederates killed and at least seven wounded.” 

Interestingly, Capt. Lynch was 60+ years old when he commanded the “Mosquito Fleet.” 

(He was quite a guy. Earlier, in 1847, Capt. Lynch had led an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea in the Middle East. His crew of scientists proved that the Dead Sea was below sea level…by nearly 1,313 feet.) 

After the Civil War, a railroad line was built in 1881 from Norfolk through Elizabeth City and on to Hertford in Perquimans County and Edenton in Chowan County. 

At the time, Richard Benbury Creecy, a newspaper publisher in Elizabeth City, proclaimed the railroad promised prosperity, prosperity and more prosperity. 

We’ll have to see about that…next time.