Invasion and conquest of North Carolina

by John W. Hinds

From the moment Southern-born Naval Academy graduate Lieutenant Charles Williamson Flusser stepped aboard his first command, the USS Commodore Perry became an extension of the fire in his belly to carry the Civil War to his fellow Southern-born shipmates serving in the Confederate States Navy. Flusser fought his ship with distinction during the battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City, North Carolina and soon gained grudging admiration among the citizenry for navigating his 700-ton, former Staten Island ferry boat where no steamer had gone before. Some claimed he operated his "double ender" gunboat on "a wet sponge or a heavy dew."--