Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles appointed a commission to study the difficulties of blockading the Southern coastline. Captain Samuel Francis Du Pont chaired this group, which later became known as the Du Pont Board.
On the 28th of October 1861, twenty-five coal and ammunition vessels departed Hampton Roads accompanied by two warships. The remainder of the fleet including seventeen warships and all army transports put out to sea the next day.
Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont ordered his ships to keep moving in an elliptical path while bombarding Fort Walker and Fort Beauregard. This tactic led to confusion when ships dropped out of line leaving only Wabash and Susquehanna in the line of battle shortly before noon on the 7th of November 1861.
Total casualties came to less than 100 people during the engagement with eight men killed in the fleet and eleven on shore. Four other Confederates went missing but no further details exist regarding their status.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee withdrew his forces from the coast to defend vital interior positions instead of contesting the gunboats. He successfully thwarted Federal efforts to cut the railroad link between Savannah and Charleston even after being recalled to Richmond for command of the Army of Northern Virginia.