Abstract:
Fort Ocracoke was built to protect the inlet which connected the Pamlico Sound with the Atlantic. Designed by Colonel Ellwood Morris, construction started on May 1861. Five companies supported the 20 gun fort until an attack on Fort Hatteras drew four of these five companies away. Orders soon followed that if Fort Hatteras fell Fort Ocracoke should be abandoned, which it was with Confederate troops spiking its guns and burning the fort.