The Federals crossed the inlet into Pamlico Sound and prepared to set sail north. The expedition was a joint operation between the Union army and navy. General Ambrose Burnside would command for the army who were traveling on transports. Flag Officer Louis Goldsborough would lead a flotilla of 19 gunboats. Many were converted ferry boats chosen because they had a shallow draft and were very maneuverable. The flotilla carried a total of 60 cannon, most were rifled Parrotts. Stephen Rowan would be the tactical commander.

Brigadier General Richard Gatlin was in charge of North Carolina’s defenses. Southern resources were thin in the area with the transfer of many North Carolinian soldiers to Virginia. Under Gatlin were two Brigadier Generals. Joseph R. Anderson commanded the 2,000 men of the District of Cape Fear which guarded Wilmington. Lawrence O’Bryan Branch headed the District of the Pamlico headquartered in New Bern. He had troops there (2 regiments), in Beaufort and at Fort Macon (5 companies), and a small force in Washington. Commodore William Lynch commanded a naval squadron of ten small vessels, often referred to as the Mosquito Fleet.

The Confederate command structure of Roanoke Island where Burnside was headed was complicated. Governor Clark was angry after the fall of Hatteras Island in 1861 and wanted the Department of Norfolk to be in charge of its defenses. When Major General Benjamin Huger declined, Governor Clark responded by refusing to send reinforcements to the island. The Confederate War Department attached Roanoke Island as a separate district under Huger with Brigadier General Henry Wise, the former governor of Virginia, in command. When Wise arrived, 1400 soldiers were there from the 8th and 31st NC along with three companies from the 17th NC. Roanoke Island is 12 miles long and about 3 miles wide. A Civil War map of its defenses is shown below.

Wise would construct four earthen forts that faced Croatan Sound. The northernmost was Fort Huger on Weir’s Point with 12 guns.

Fort Blanchard, a small bastion with 4 cannons, was 1200 yards further south.

Fort Bartow was on Pork Point with nine guns.

Fort Forrest was across the sound on the mainland at Redstone Point. It was built by running two canal boats onto the swampy shore, filling them with earth, bracing them with timber, and mounting seven 32-pound smoothbores on their decks.

There was a two-gun lunette at Ballast Point on the Roanoke Sound side of the island. Ammunition was in short supply especially explosive shells. There were only three field pieces available to the infantry: an old 6-pounder from Edenton that had been primarily used to fire salutes; an 18-pounder from the Mexican War; and a 24-pound howitzer. Wise’s attempts to obtain additional troops were initially unsuccessful. Eventually he would get permission to transfer the unit he previously commanded in West Virginia, the Wise Legion, and their artillery to Roanoke Island. This was a force of about 4,000 men but the vast majority would still be on their way at the time of the battle. Wise set up his headquarters at Nag’s Head on the Outer Banks. Colonel Henry Shaw, his second in command, drove piles and sunk ships in order to obstruct the ship channel in Croatan Sound.

On the morning of February 5th the Federal armada (19 warships, two-dozen army transports and smaller vessels) set sail for Roanoke Island. They halted later that night 10 miles south of the island. A heavy fog made travel difficult on the 6th and the ships anchored a few miles short of Roanoke Island. General Wise suffering from an attack of pleurisy/pneumonia was confined to his bed in Nag’s head and as a result Colonel Shaw commanded the Rebels. The fog lifted on the 7th and Burnside decided to land his troops at Ashby’s harbor two miles south of Fort Bartow. Shortly after 11:00 AM the lead ships began to shell Fort Bartow (shown in the map below and the marker describing the naval aspect of the battle).

The nine guns of the fort commanded by Gabriel Hill were no match for the Navy’s 60 guns. In addition, because the Union Navy was south of the fort and the fort’s cannon were in fixed position, only 4 of its 9 guns could fire on the Federal ships. Of the 205 shots fired from the fort only 27 hit a ship. The USS Commodore Perry was hit 8 times by round shot. The USS Louisiana extinguished a brief fire. The USS Hetzel temporarily withdrew after being hit below the waterline and the USS Hunchback was hit in the engine forcing it to anchor. Explosive Union shells resulted in a large fire in the fort. Further north nine ships of Commodore Lynch’s Mosquito fleet were behind the barricade of pylons and sunken ships. One of them was a supply ship. The remaining 8 were equipped with a total of only 9 guns (Seabird the flagship, Beaufort, Raleigh, Curlew, Appomattox, Fanny, Forrest and Ellis). The barricade was incomplete and there were several areas where Federal ships could pass, including a 1700-yard gap on the eastern end. After 15 minutes of firing the Mosquito fleet fell back under the cover of Forts Forest and Huger. The Federals were focused on the landing and did not try and force the barricade. Their fire did put the Curlew and the Forrest out of commission and the rest of the fleet nearly out of ammunition withdrew by 4:00 PM to Elizabeth City to try and obtain more ammunition. Two Confederates were killed and three wounded. The Union Navy suffered 3 killed and 11 wounded. A view from the shoreline of Ashby’s Harbor is shown below. Pictures taken at 35.8785986, -75.6690058.

Colonel Shaw when he learned of the Union approach sent two hundred men to Ashby Harbor, which he felt was the most likely place the Union would come ashore, commanded by Colonel J.V. Jordan. The advanced force was to delay the landing as long as possible before falling back. At 3:00 PM after shelling the Confederates away from the shoreline General Foster began landing his men at the Hammond House. Reno’s and Parke’s brigades also landed. In the first wave over 4,000 men came ashore with little opposition and 7,500 men were on land by midnight.

In the meantime, Colonel Shaw was gathering his men at a line of entrenchments with a three-gun battery/redoubt that spanned the main north-south road that ran up the center of the island (shown below). Shaw placed three companies of men (about 400 men) in his works with the rest in reserve (about 1,000 men). The redoubt was 35 yards wide with a water-filled ditch that was 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep in front of it which sat across the road. Three guns were in the redoubt. The line from the redoubt extended on both sides to the surrounding swamps. The Rebels had cleared all the trees in a field that was 700 feet long and 300 feet wide in front of their works.

Confederate reinforcements (two companies of the 46th VA and 8 companies of the 59th VA) arrived and were placed in the redoubt. During the landing one member of the 21st MA was wounded. As evening fell Union forces were consolidating on the Hammond farm.

On the morning of February 8th Burnside’s men would head out around 7:30 AM with Foster’s brigade (10th CT, 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 27th MA) in the lead followed by Reno’s (21st MA, 51st NY, 9th NJ, and 51st PA) and then Parke’s brigade (8th CT, 11th CT, 9th NY, 4th RI, and 5th RI). Foster would be in command on the field. Foster’s column was led by Colonel Edwin Upton’s 25th MA. The road was narrow and progress was slow. The pictures below are of a fenced area at the site of the redoubt that contains a marker and a small remaining part of the wall of the redoubt.

The 25th MA attacked the Confederates in front, supported by 6 cannon, but were repulsed by heavy Confederate fire. Foster next sent the 10th CT forward with the same result. He quickly concluded that a frontal assault was impossible and ordered the 23rd and 27th MA to try and flank the Confederate left. At 9:00 AM Reno decided to take his brigade and try and flank the Confederate right.

Reno’s brigade was able to pass through the swamp and overwhelm its defenders and send them fleeing. At the same time the 23rd and 27th MA arrived at the fort from the left. Two regiments of Parke’s brigade (4th RI and 9th NY) came up and attacked in the center. When the 10th CT in their gray overcoats rose up to fire the 9th NY took them for Confederates and fired on them.

The Confederates fled to the north end of the island where their camps and forts were located. However, no transports had arrived to evacuate them. In the meantime 4 more companies of the 46th VA and 8 companies of the 2nd NC Battalion had arrived only to add to the rolls of prisoners taken. In total about 2500 Confederates were taken prisoner, 24 were killed and 68 wounded. General Wise’s son, Jennings Wise, was wounded during the battle and then wounded again while being transported in a boat to Nag’s Head. He died later that night. Union casualties were 41 killed, 227 wounded and 15 missing. The Federals captured 42 cannon. In the following month the Federals repaired the damage to the forts, installed a telegraph and improved the roads and wharves.

Next- Roanoke Island- Other Civil War Sites

Sources

Burnside’s Invasion of North Carolina by Richard A. Sauers. Blue and Gray Magazine. Volume 5, Issue 5. May 1988.

Gunboats, Muskets, and Torpedoes. Coastal North Carolina 1861-1865.