Battle of South Mills
Fight for the Canal
Early in 1862, Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside led an expedition to secure the coast of North Carolina and occupy strategically important sites such as New Bern and Elizabeth City. After Burnside learned of the March 9 clash between USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (formerly Merrimack) in Hampton Roads, Virginia, he became concerned that Confederate ironclads might attack his right flank from Virginia via the Dismal Swamp Canal. He decided to destroy these locks and close the canal here. Burnside assigned Gen. Jesse L. Reno the task, and before dawn on April 19, Reno led a four-gun battery and more than 3,000 men north from Elizabeth City.
Three miles southeast of here, Reno encountered Confederate Col. Ambrose R. Wright’s 3rd Georgia Regiment and North Carolina militiamen (about 750 altogether) in a ditch behind a fence, obscured by burning brush in another ditch in front. A Confederate battery commanded the road. After several hours of skirmishing, Union Col. Rush C. Hawkins ordered his 9th New York Zouaves to charge the battery, but strong Confederate fire drove them back with heavy casualties. After more fighting, Wright withdrew to Joy’s Creek to await reinforcements and more ammunition. The Federals bivouacked on the field but marched back to Elizabeth City during the night when rumors of a counterattack reached Reno. The canal remained intact, the Confederates lost only 28 killed and wounded, and the Federals suffered 127 casualties. Reno’s claims to the contrary, South Mills was clearly a Southern victory, but no Confederate ironclads ever used the canal and no serious threat was ever mounted to Burnside’s flank from this direction.
Marker is on Canal Drive 0.3 miles south of Main Street (U.S. 17), on the left when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
