one o'clock
While General Joseph E. Johnston was devoting his energies to a campaign to change the date of his commission and his friends organizing their opposition to the President at Richmond , Gideon Welles , the quiet , unassuming Secretary of the Navy at Washington , was slowly but surely drawing the mighty coil , the United States Navy , about the throat of the South . He made little noise but the work he did was destined to become the determining factor of the war . The first blow was struck at North Carolina . On August 26 , 1861 , at one o'clock the fleet quietly put to sea from Fortress Monroe . On Tuesday they arrived at Hatteras Inlet , opened fire on the two forts guarding its entrance and on the twenty-ninth a white flag was raised . Seven hundred and fifteen prisoners were surrendered , one thousand stand of arms , and thirty pieces of cannon . At a single blow the whole vast inland water coast of North Carolina on her Sounds was opened to the enemy with communications from Norfolk , Virginia , to Beaufort .