February 8, 1862 – The Federal army-navy effort to seize North Carolina’s Outer Banks continued, with the potential reward being a strengthening of the naval blockade and the opening of an invasion route into southern Virginia.
Gen. Ambrose Burnside | Image Credit: Wikispaces.com
Brigadier General Ambrose E. Burnside and Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough launched an army-navy expedition against Roanoke Island in January. The island guarded the back door to Richmond, commanded naval passage between Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, and overlooked the North Carolina coast from Cape Lookout to Virginia.
The Federal effort to take Roanoke Island had been bogged down by bad weather, with sandbars providing another impediment for Federal warships and troop transports to enter Hatteras Inlet into Pamlico Sound. After a channel had finally been cleared, the last Federal vessel cleared the bar on February 4.
The next morning, the 65 Federal ships and 13,000 troops that had survived the past month’s harsh frustrations began heading northward up Pamlico Sound, with Goldsborough’s warships leading the way. The fleet anchored for the night about 10 miles from Roanoke Island, poised to attack the following day. However, heavy fog stalled the Federal advance.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Henry A. Wise commanded just 2,300 Confederate defenders at Roanoke Island. Wise had gone to Richmond to plead for reinforcements to no avail. He had also failed to recruit “free negro laborers” to help build defenses. Wise then fell ill with pneumonia and was replaced by Colonel Henry M. Shaw, a man distrusted by Confederates for his New England upbringing and his lack of military experience.
In addition to the Confederate garrison, three sand forts bearing 32 total guns protected the northwestern section of Roanoke Island. This was hardly an ideal position since the Federals would be coming from the south. The Confederates also had Flag Officer William F. Lynch’s “mosquito” fleet of seven naval vessels, each with just one gun. The island itself contained a redoubt across its center road, with swamps guarding the garrison’s flanks.
When the fog lifted on the morning of the 7th, Goldsborough’s fleet began the advance. The 16 gunboats, bearing 64 guns, led the way in line of battle, with the troops and supply ships behind them. Aboard Burnside’s flagship the Picket, signalmen conveyed to the armada a quote from Lord Nelson before the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar: “Today, the country expects every man to do his duty.”
Moving northward, the fleet approached Fort Bartow, at Pork Point in Croatan Sound, west of Roanoke Island. Confederates at Bartow fired a signal shot around 11:30 a.m., as the vessels split between attacking the fort and confronting Lynch’s fleet. Lynch quickly pulled his ships back out of firing range, burning the C.S.S. Curlew to prevent her capture.
The Federals then turned on the Confederate water batteries and Fort Bartow. Many cannon were easily knocked out of commission, as Goldsborough directed his gunboats to move as close to the fort as possible so that Confederate artillerists could not depress their guns low enough to fire on them. With the Confederates in the forts and fleet occupied, Burnside began preparing to land his troops on Roanoke Island.
Burnside selected Ashby Harbor, in the island’s southwestern corner, as the landing point based on the advice of a local fugitive slave. The war’s first successful large-scale amphibious landing occurred when the Federal troop transports began debarking two miles south of Goldsborough’s gunboats around 4 p.m. The ships protected the landing by repelling one last desperate attack from the “mosquito” fleet.
The Roanoke Island Landing | Image Credit: learnnc.org
Steamers sent surf-boats and rowing craft filled with troops and artillery toward the island, and the Federals waded the rest of the way to shore. Over the next nine hours, some 10,000 Federals in three brigades under Brigadier Generals Jesse Reno, John G. Parke, and John G. Foster landed at Ashby’s Harbor. Colonel Shaw dispatched 450 Confederates to contest the landing, but they retreated after observing the overwhelming force coming ashore. Shaw hurriedly prepared to make a stand at the island’s main redoubt.
The Federals quickly secured the island’s southern half, then huddled in freezing rain until the next day’s scheduled attack. On the morning of the 8th, the troops advanced upon the Confederate defenses in the northern section of Roanoke Island. They moved in three columns on the causeway that crossed the island’s vast swampland. The Federals encountered no resistance until they reached a clearing about halfway up the 12-mile island. About 1,500 entrenched Confederates and three cannon covered that point.
Shaw placed his men behind strong earthworks, hoping to draw the Federals into open ground. The swamps in the clearing also threatened to slow any attack long enough for the Confederates to pour fire into the attackers and drive them off.
One Federal brigade advanced head-on up the causeway, led by the 9th New York Zouaves. The other two brigades conducted simultaneous flank attacks, advancing knee-deep through mud and swampland. The overwhelmed Confederates quickly abandoned their trenches and fled toward the island’s northern end.
The Federals chased them to the sea, where a Confederate officer asked Foster for capitulation terms. Foster replied, “None but those of unconditional surrender.” This message was relayed to Shaw, who thought for a moment and said, “I must surrender.” Foster soon arrived to receive Shaw’s sword, and Roanoke Island belonged to the Federals.
The Federals sustained 264 casualties (37 killed, 214 wounded, and 13 missing) while the Confederates lost 85 (23 killed and 62 wounded), along with 2,675 surrendered. Wise’s son was killed in action, but Wise himself overcame his illness long enough to escape to Poplar Branch, 20 miles north.
This was the first significant Federal land victory of the war, much greater than the victory at Fort Henry two days before. Burnside reported that he had “complete possession of this island, with five forts, mounting thirty-two guns, winter quarters for some 4,000 troops, and 3,000 stand of arms, large hospital buildings, with a large amount of lumber, wheelbarrows, scows, pile-drivers, a mud dredge, ladders, and other appurtenances for military service…”
Although this battle was small compared to future engagements, the Confederate government considered the loss of Roanoke Island a great disaster. This exposed northeastern North Carolina to a potential Federal drive to Norfolk or even Richmond. It also gave the Federals control of North Carolina’s inland seas, which would strengthen the blockade and alarm all coastal defenders. The loss greatly harmed southern morale and led many to wonder why the Davis administration did not work harder to ensure the island’s security.
By around 4 p.m., Goldsborough’s Federal gunboat fleet had removed the Confederate obstructions to Albemarle Sound; the “mosquito” fleet offered little resistance. Goldsborough followed up this victory by advancing up the Pasquotank River toward Elizabeth City to confront Lynch’s small squadron. A two-day bombardment of Fort Bartow led to the Confederates evacuating the place on the 9th.
News of Roanoke Island’s capture was celebrated throughout the North. Horace Greeley wrote in his New York Tribune: “It now requires no far-reaching prophet to predict the end of this struggle.” Meanwhile, gloom pervaded the Confederacy, with an article in the Richmond Examiner calling the defeat “certainly the most painful event of the war.”
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References
Chaitin, Peter M., The Coastal War: Chesapeake Bay to Rio Grande (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983), p. 24, 26-27, 30-31; CivilWarDailyGazette.com (multiple dates); Denney, Robert E., The Civil War Years: A Day-by-Day Chronicle (New York: Gramercy Books, 1992 [1998 edition]), p. 121-23; Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville (New York: Vintage Books, 1958), p. 227, 229-30; Fredriksen, John C., Civil War Almanac (New York: Checkmark Books, 2007), p. 107-08; Freeman, Douglas Southall, Lee (Scribner, Kindle Edition, 2008), Loc 3091; Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day (New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971), p. 167-69; McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States Book 6, Oxford University Press, Kindle Edition, 1988), p. 372; McPherson, James M., War on the Waters: The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865 (Littlefield History of the Civil War Era, University of North Carolina Press, Kindle Edition, 2012), p. 51; Pollard, Edward A., Southern History of the War (New York: The Fairfax Press, 1990), p. 234; Stanchak, John E., Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Row, 1986, Patricia L. Faust ed.), p. 636
