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Burnside's North Carolina Expedition [February-June 1862]
"The enterprise of running the blockade and importing army supplies
from abroad has proven a complete success." Governor Zebulon Baird Vance, November 1863
| Fort Huger on Roanoke Island, NC |

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| (Formidable Civil War Fort) |
Burnside's North Carolina Expedition, commonly referred to as the Burnside Expedition, was an objective in Union
General Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan, and consisted of a series of battles
along the North Carolina coast. In January 1862, an amphibious expedition under the command of Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose
E. Burnside was dispatched to the North Carolina coast to deprive the Confederacy of its vital blockade-running
ports. Hatteras Inlet, during the Blockade of the Carolina Coast, had been seized by Maj. Gen. Ben Butler in 1861. Now, Burnside was sent to take Roanoke Island, capture
the town of New Bern, move against Fort Macon, and proceed against the railroad at Kinston and Goldsboro. Despite the handicap of adverse weather, the first three
objectives of the expedition were successively achieved. The last objective, however, would have to wait.
(Map reflects Burnside's
initial route and thrust to Roanoke Island, which was the first of a series of battles in the Burnside Expedition.)
(Courtesy of Clark's North Carolina Regiments)
| Civil War Burnside Expedition Map |

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| General Burnside's North Carolina Civil War Expedition |
| North Carolina Civil War Map |

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| (Click to Enlarge) |
(Right) Map of the principal battles
fought in North Carolina.
During late January 1862, a Federal
land-sea expedition assembled at Hatteras Inlet (see Battle of Hatteras Inlet Batteries: A History) to take Roanoke Island and capture control of the North Carolina sound region and its Outer Banks. The force was under the joint command of General Ambrose Burnside and navy Flag-Officer Louis Goldsborough. After
several delays due to bad weather, the Union fleet, consisting of numerous troop transports and more than 20 war vessels,
arrived at the southern end of Roanoke Island. The Battle of Roanoke Island was the initial
battle in the Burnside Expedition.
(February 8, 1862, map reflecting the forts and batteries located
on, and adjacent, the strategic Roanoke Island.)
| Detailed Map of Roanoke Island, North Carolina |

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| Historic Civil War Map of Roanoke Island |
| Fort Bartow on the North Carolina Coast |

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| (Historical Marker) |
The Confederate “mosquito
fleet” of small, shallow draft boats attempted to lure Federal ships into the dangerous unmarked and obstructed channel.
On February 7, 1862, Federal
ships began a bombardment of the three Confederate earthen forts (Fort Bartow, Fort
Blanchard, and Fort Huger)
on the west side of Roanoke Island. Fort
Huger was the northernmost and largest of the forts with twelve guns
mounted in its sand parapets. The forts were designed to protect the mainland from Federal invasion and to complement obstructions
placed in the channel. Forts Huger and Blanchard were not actively engaged in the Battle of Roanoke Island and were ineffective
in the battle because the Union fleet maintained a safe distance relative to the range of the cannons placed at those forts.
Bartow, however, was actively engaged in the Battle of Roanoke Island.
The first shot of the battle was fired from Fort Bartow’s guns on February 7, 1862,
and the fort subsequently was bombarded by the Federal fleet for seven hours. The fort returned fire but with little effect.
| Confederate Inlet Obstructions |

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| (Historical Marker) |
The Confederate fleet, under
the command of Captain W. F. Lynch, waited to engage the Federals behind a line of obstructions placed in Croatan Sound to
retard the Federal advance. The line of obstructions in the channel consisted of 16 sunken ships and pilings, which were meant
to damage the undersides of ships passing through the waters However, the Confederates, after a sharp engagement which was
ended only by darkness, were forced to retire due to lack of ammunition.
FORT
BARTOW: The southernmost Confederate defense. It was one of three Confederate
earthen forts on the west side of Roanoke Island (the others were Fort Huger and Fort Blanchard) and it fort mounted nine
guns. Of the three forts, Bartow was the only one actively engaged in the Battle of Roanoke Island.
FORT
BLANCHARD: Constructed in the fall of 1861 of reinforced sand, Fort Blanchard was the smallest of the three
and mounted four guns. The fort saw no action during the Battle of Roanoke Island as its guns were out of range of the main
Federal operations. Fort Blanchard
was surrendered on February 8, 1862.
FORT HUGER: Principal Confederate
fort on Roanoke Island. It mounted twelve guns and was surrendered Feb. 8, 1862.
| Fort Forrest North Carolina |

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| (Historical Marker) |
FORT FORREST:
A small mainland Confederate fortification on the western side of Croatan Sound, Fort
Forrest consisted of two shorebound barges equipped with seven 32 pound
cannon. The position was directly opposite Fort Blanchard
on Roanoke Island and its construction amounted to an attempt to block passage through the
channel by Union gun boats. Fort Forrest
was destroyed by Federal forces during the Battle of Roanoke Island on February 8, 1862.
On February 8, 1862, the Federal
fleet again bombarded various positions on Roanoke Island including Fort Blanchard and Fort Forrest in support of General Burnside’s land offensive. After the Union victory
on the afternoon of February 8, a detachment of Federal ships under the command of Commodore S. C. Rowan was sent into Albemarle Sound in pursuit of the Confederate fleet. As a consequence, Union forces were in control
of most of the inland waters of northeastern North Carolina.
Burnside next turned his attention and efforts on New Bern (spelled New
Berne at the time). Confederate General Lawrence O. Branch, commanding an inadequate number of troops in that area,
decided to defend the city in fortifications located approximately six miles south and adjacent the Neuse River.
(Map of the entrance to Beaufort harbor, N.C., showing the position of Fort
Macon and vicinity.)
| Vital Fort Macon (Center) and City of Beaufort |

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| (Library of Congress) |
| North Carolina Coastal Defense System |

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| North Carolina Outer Banks Map |
Burnside, however, landed his men twelve miles downriver on March 13 and
began marching toward New Bern. Determined to smash the Union invaders, Branch had redeployed his Rebel force closer
to the city, and his men now braced for the attack, which began the next morning.
Although the Confederates held off the advancing Union troops for several
hours, eventually the Confederate center collapsed, and Branch’s soldiers retreated. Some Rebels, after they crossed
the Trent River into New Bern, and as Federal gunboats shelled them, burned the bridge behind them.
Realizing his position was untenable,
Branch withdrew his men by rail to Kinston. Burnside’s powerful force occupied New Bern the next day, and remained in Federal hands until the end of the war. (The renowned Confederate General George E. Pickett
attempted to recapture it in 1864 but failed.) Burnside now boldly advanced and captured both Beaufort and Fort Macon (a vital and strategic fort), and, for his invaluable successes, was
promoted on March 18.
"T
References listed at bottom of page.
Recommended
Reading: Gray Raiders of the Sea: How Eight Confederate Warships Destroyed the Union's
High Seas Commerce. Reader’s Review:
This subject is one of the most fascinating in the history of sea power, and the general public has needed a reliable single-volume
reference on it for some time. The story of the eight Confederate privateers and their attempt to bring Union trade to a halt
seems to break every rule of common sense. How could so few be so successful against so many? The United
States, after Great Britain,
had the most valuable and extensive import/export trade in the world by the middle of the 19th century. The British themselves
were worried since they were in danger of being surpassed in the same manner that their own sea traders had surpassed the
Dutch early in the 18th century. Continued below…
From its founding
in 1861, the Confederate States of America realized it had a huge problem since it lacked a navy.
It also saw that it couldn't build one, especially after the fall of its biggest port, New
Orleans, in 1862. The vast majority of shipbuilders and men with maritime skills lived north of the
Mason-Dixon Line, in the United States, and mostly in New
England. This put an incredible burden on the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Stephen R. Mallory. When he saw
that most of the enemy navy was being used to blockade the thousands of miles of Confederate coasts, however, he saw an opportunity
for the use of privateers. Mallory sent Archibald Bulloch, a Georgian and the future maternal grandfather of Theodore Roosevelt,
to England to purchase British-made vessels
that the Confederacy could send out to prey on Union merchant ships. Bulloch's long experience with the sea enabled him to
buy good ships, including the vessels that became the most feared of the Confederate privateers - the Alabama,
the Florida, and the Shenandoah. Matthew Fontaine Maury
added the British-built Georgia, and the Confederacy itself launched the
Sumter, the Nashville, the Tallahassee,
and the Chickamauga - though these were generally not as effective
commerce raiders as the first four. This popular history details the history of the eight vessels in question, and gives detailed
biographical information on their captains, officers, and crews. The author relates the careers of Raphael Semmes, John Newland
Maffitt, Charles Manigault Morris, James Iredell Waddell, Charles W. Read, and others with great enthusiasm. "Gray Raiders"
is a great basic introduction to the privateers of the Confederacy. More than eighty black and white illustrations help the
reader to visualize their dramatic exploits, and an appendix lists all the captured vessels. I highly recommend it to everyone
interested in the Confederacy, and also to all naval and military history lovers.
Burnside's North Carolina Expedition [February-June 1862]
Related Studies:
North Carolina Coast and the American Civil War
Recommended
Reading: Ironclads and Columbiads:
The Coast (The Civil War in North Carolina)
(456 pages). Description: Ironclads
and Columbiads covers some of the most important battles and campaigns in the state. In January 1862, Union forces
began in earnest to occupy crucial points on the North Carolina
coast. Within six months, Union army and naval forces effectively controlled coastal North Carolina
from the Virginia line south to present-day Morehead
City. Continued below...
Union setbacks in Virginia, however, led to the withdrawal of many federal soldiers from North Carolina,
leaving only enough Union troops to hold a few coastal strongholds—the vital ports and railroad junctions. The South
during the Civil War, moreover, hotly contested the North’s ability to maintain its grip on these key coastal strongholds.
Recommended
Reading: The Civil War in North Carolina. Description:
Numerous battles and skirmishes were fought in North Carolina
during the Civil War, and the campaigns and battles themselves were crucial in the grand strategy of the conflict and involved
some of the most famous generals of the war. John Barrett presents the complete story of military engagements across the state,
including the classical pitched battle of Bentonville--involving Generals Joe Johnston and William Sherman--the siege of Fort Fisher, the amphibious
campaigns on the coast, and cavalry sweeps such as General George Stoneman's Raid.
Recommended
Reading: The
Civil War in Coastal North Carolina (175 pages) (North Carolina Division of Archives and History). Description: From the drama of blockade-running to graphic descriptions of battles on the state's islands and sounds,
this book portrays the explosive events that took place in North Carolina's coastal region during the Civil War.
Topics discussed include the strategic importance of coastal North Carolina,
Federal occupation of coastal areas, blockade-running, and the impact of war on civilians along the Tar Heel coast.
Recommended
Reading: Storm over Carolina: The Confederate Navy's Struggle for Eastern
North Carolina. Description: The struggle for control of the eastern waters of North Carolina
during the War Between the States was a bitter, painful, and sometimes humiliating one for the Confederate navy. No better
example exists of the classic adage, "Too little, too late." Burdened by the lack of adequate warships, construction
facilities, and even ammunition, the South's naval arm fought bravely and even recklessly to stem the tide of the Federal
invasion of North Carolina from the raging Atlantic. Storm Over Carolina is the account of the Southern navy's struggle in North Carolina waters and it is a saga of crushing defeats interspersed with moments of
brilliant and even spectacular victories. It is also the story of dogged Southern determination and incredible perseverance
in the face of overwhelming odds. Continued below...
For most of
the Civil War, the navigable portions of the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Chowan, and Pasquotank rivers were
occupied by Federal forces. The Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, as well as most of the coastal towns and counties, were also
under Union control. With the building of the river ironclads, the Confederate navy at last could strike a telling blow against
the invaders, but they were slowly overtaken by events elsewhere. With the war grinding to a close, the last Confederate vessel
in North Carolina waters was destroyed. William T. Sherman
was approaching from the south, Wilmington was lost, and the
Confederacy reeled as if from a mortal blow. For the Confederate navy, and even more so for the besieged citizens of eastern
North Carolina, these were stormy days indeed. Storm Over Carolina describes their story, their struggle, their history.
Recommended
Reading: The Civil War in the Carolinas (Hardcover). Description: Dan Morrill relates the experience of two quite different states bound together in the defense of the
Confederacy, using letters, diaries, memoirs, and reports. He shows how the innovative
operations of the Union army and navy along the coast and in the bays and rivers of the Carolinas
affected the general course of the war as well as the daily lives of all Carolinians. He demonstrates the "total war" for
North Carolina's vital coastal railroads and ports. In
the latter part of the war, he describes how Sherman's operation
cut out the heart of the last stronghold of the South. Continued below...
The author
offers fascinating sketches of major and minor personalities, including the new president and state governors, Generals Lee,
Beauregard, Pickett, Sherman, D.H. Hill, and Joseph E. Johnston. Rebels and abolitionists, pacifists and unionists, slaves
and freed men and women, all influential, all placed in their context with clear-eyed precision. If he were wielding a needle
instead of a pen, his tapestry would offer us a complete picture of a people at war. Midwest Book Review: The Civil War in the Carolinas by civil war expert and historian
Dan Morrill (History Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historical
Society) is a dramatically presented and extensively researched survey and analysis of the impact the American Civil War had
upon the states of North Carolina and South Carolina, and the people who called these states their home. A meticulous, scholarly,
and thoroughly engaging examination of the details of history and the sweeping change that the war wrought for everyone, The
Civil War In The Carolinas is a welcome and informative addition to American Civil War Studies reference collections.
References: John G. Barrett, The
Civil War in North Carolina (1963); John Stephen Carbone, The Civil War in Coastal North Carolina (2001); Lorenzo Traver, Burnside Expedition in North
Carolina: Battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth
City (1880); Richard Allen Sauers, The Burnside Expedition in North Carolina (1996); North Carolina Office of Archives and History;
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Library of Congress; National Archives.
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