January 21, 1862: The Confederates discover the Burnside Expedition at Hatteras Inlet

U.S.S. Delaware, the Burnside Expedition's shallow draft flagship

The Confederacy had lost track of the Burnside Expedition. Burnside (and Louis M. Goldsborough) had sailed out of Hampton Roads weeks before, and then the South had waited for the hammer blow to fall--and then nothing happened. Weeks passed. Finally, on January 20, 1862, someone thought to take a couple of gunboats down to Hatteras Inlet to see what the federals were up to. From the log of the U.S.S. Stars and Stripes:

January 21, 1862 - At 1 p.m. two rebel steamers in sight; flagship Delaware, with six of the fleet, gave chase.

The federals gave chase, but they did not catch the interlopers. The Confederacy finally knew for certain where the Burnside Expedition was: it was still hung up on the bar at Hatteras Inlet. Several of the shallower draft federal gunboats and transports had already crossed the bar and entered Pamlico Sound. Many other larger vessels still waited outside while an attempt was made to scour a deeper channel through the bar. Ambrose Burnside recalled this period in a memoir after the war:

From time to time we made efforts to cross the fleet from the inlet into Pamlico Sound, over what was called the swash, which separated it from the inlet. We had been led to believe that there eight feet of water upon the swash, but when we arrived we discovered to our sorrow that there were but six fee; and as most of our vessels, as well of the naval fleet which we found at Hatteras Inlet on our arrival, drew more water than that, it was necessary to deepen the channel by some process. The current upon the swash was very swift, a circumstance which proved to be much in our favor. Large vessels were sent ahead, under full steam, on the bar when the tide was running out, and then anchors were carried out by boats in advance, so as to hold the vessels in position. The swift current would wash the sand from under them and allow them to float, after which they were driven farther on by steam and anchored again, when the sand would again wash out from under them. This process was continued for days, until a broad channel of over eight feet was made, deep enough to allow the passage of the fleet into the sound.

Slowly, and with much labor, the Burnside Expedition was literally dragging itself over the bar into the Pamlico Sound.