The Battle Of Roanoke Island

While it's not often spoken of in the same sentences as the Battle of Gettysburg, Antietam, Siloh, or Sumter, the Battle of Roanoke Island was a major development during the early years of the Civil War and set the stage for the rise and fall of one of the U.S. Army's most well-known generals, Ambrose Burnside. As an action in the Civil War, it was a small engagement, but its repercussions far outweighed its immediate results.

 

Map of the Battle of Roanoke Island.

Library of Congress

Arriving in the Outer Banks

Early in the Civil War, the United States Army faced tough test after tough test, often losing more ground than it gained back from the Confederate states. After the disastrous first months of the war, the United States army looked to fully blockade Confederate ports, and the ports of North Carolina were vital targets. A raid, turned occupation, took a couple of small forts on Cape Hatteras in August of 1861, setting the stage for further incursions along the coast of North Carolina.

Union Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside formulated a plan using the Outer Banks as a jumping-off point for the invasion of eastern North Carolina. He devised an expedition with troops that were trained and experienced with ocean operations. Various ferryboats, as well, were commandeered because of their shallow draft and their ability to maneuver in the tight waterways of the Outer Banks. On January 8, 1862, the so-called Coastal Division, a motley little fleet of sixty-six ships, put out to sea from Annapolis, Maryland.

Shortly after leaving, the fleet encountered a heavy fog, limiting vision and blacking out the sky. Vessels lost sight of the lead gunboat, the Picket, with Burnside on board and several became lost on their journey down to the opening of the Chesapeake Bay. Using sound to navigate, drums echoed through the night, indicating the presence of ships in the black of night. The bulk of the 70-ship fleet arrived at Fort Monroe with only minor damage and bruised expectations of what they hoped would be smooth sailing.

On January 11th, the expedition headed to Colonel Rush Hawkins’ post at Hatteras Inlet. On January 12th, the fleet, struck by a nor’easter, scattered, and many of the smaller ships were almost swamped, and several ships were lost to the treacherous waters of the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

 

Ships Lost In Transit

City of New York

The City of New York was the largest ship in Burnside's "Mosquito Fleet" for the invasion of Roanoke Island. It was originally a passenger steamer, but was transformed into a freighter. The City of New York suffered the fate common in the Outer Banks, getting stuck on the shifting shoals off Cape Hatteras. The rising waves crashed into the ship, and while it lasted through the night, the evacuation order was issued at 8:00 AM on January 14th, with the ship breaking apart shortly after the evacuation. 

Pocahontas

The Pocahontas was a paddlewheel steamer and tried to sail north of the cape during the storm, and was pushed onto the shore by the gale-force winds. The Pocahontas carried the horses for the officers, and the horses were tossed overboard to allow them to try and swim to safety before the ship broken up. The boilers failed, and despite several attempts, the ship could not be rescued. The crew was able to go ashore and walk down the island to regroup with the rest of the fleet. None of the crew perished, but most of the horses died in the storm.

Zouave

The Zouave, a gunboat steamer, ripped a hole in its hull when it overran its own anchor in the dangerous tides. The gunboat ran aground shortly after the hole breached the hull, and the crew was rescued, but the ship was completely lost. 

Grapeshot

The Grapeshot, a canalboat being towed behind the New Brunswick, began taking on water in the gale storm. As water began to overrun the boat, the crew were rescued, and the tow line was cut shortly before the ship went under the water. 

Rowboat from The Thompson

Colonel Joseph Allen and surgeon F.S. Weller ordered the rowboat to be lowered into the water before passing through the inlet to report directly to General Burnside. Against the captain's wishes, they rowed to the inlet only to hit a shoal and became stuck. Harsh waters overturned the boat, and both men were lost beneath the waves. 

 

From Hatteras to Roanoke Island

After three weeks, the remains of the fleet finally assembled in the sound and steamed for Roanoke Island. Because of the loss of ships, the Union was forced to leave behind three regiments at Hatteras Inlet without transportation, and the rest were so crowded that many soldiers complained that it was impossible to sleep.

 

The Burnside Expedition Landing at Roanoke Island

Library of Congress

Hatteras became the staging ground for the coming invasion of Roanoke Island. General Burnside worked with Colonel Rush Hawkins, who had been in control on Hatteras Island since August. Hawkins was able to bring a local enslaved teenager, named Thomas Robinson, to Burnside's attention. Robinson had lived on Roanoke Island and was able to free himself by sailing down to Hatteras to go to the Hotel d'Afrique, an encampment of other enslaved people near Fort Clark. Robinson was able to relay the gun positions and fort locations on the island to Burnside to help with preparations for the invasion. After learning from Robinson and another enslaved person, Benjamin Tillett, about the waters around the island, Burnside launched the fleet on February 5th.

The fleet arrived off Stumpy Point, North Carolina, where they viewed Roanoke Island for the first time, on February 6, 1862, with sixty ships and 13,000 men. The eastern sound side of the island was too shallow for most ships, so Burnside would have to land on the western side of the island. Confederate defenses were created to protect this exposed western side. At the top third of the island, the Confederates massed their 3,000 soldier defensive strength. From Fort Bartow to Fort Forrest, the Confederates created an underwater barrier to block the Union Navy’s approach to the rest of the island. Further north from Fort Bartow were Forts Blanchard and Huger. And dominating the only road on the island on a knoll called Supple’s Hill was a three-gun battery. Burnside discovered the only favorable landing was south of Fort Bartow on Captain William Ashby’s farm. Besides a relatively protected harbor to land at, Ashby’s was also out of the range of Forts Blanchard and Huger, and Fort Bartow’s guns were partially blocked by a slight hill in between. Here, on the next morning, Burnside would make the landing.

 

The Battle Begins

An intense bombardment of Fort Bartow and the Confederates’ small fleet, derisively called the “Mosquito Fleet”, began around 11:30 a.m. The fleet and fort were punished by the sheer weight of the Union ordinance. The fort, as well as the camp behind it, caught fire. Two ships, the Curlew and Forrest, were driven aground near Fort Forrest, with the Curlew blocks some of the fort's guns. In a little under four hours, Confederate resistance was subdued. By nightfall, the Union troops were all ashore, and the Confederate hopes were pinned on the small three-gun battery in the center of the island.

After suffering through a sleepless rainy night, the Union troops marched out from the landing area at 7:30 a.m. Pushing down the road to the battery, Union soldiers pushed back Confederate skirmishers. Coming around the turn in the road, the Union forces saw their first view of the island’s main defense – the three-gun battery. This battery, sitting astride the road, was thirty-five yards wide with a water-filled ditch eight feet wide and three feet deep guarding the front. Supporting the three guns were about 1,000 poorly armed soldiers from various regiments. The field in front of the battery was seven hundred feet long by three hundred feet wide and surrounded by marshy swamps. It was these pools of black, slimy, swampy ground that the Confederates put their faith in. They expected the Union force to funnel their attack down the roadway, as the swamps were too treacherous and impassable. They were wrong.

 

Gallant charge of Hawkins' Zouaves upon the Confederate batteries on Roanoke Island.

Harper's Weekly, ECU Digital Collections

The Union Takes the Day

Although the ground was often hard to navigate, units became mixed, the air was filled with smoke from rifle and cannon fire, and the Union troops accidentally fired on each other, the various Union regiments were finally able to effectively attack the three-gun battery. Struck from the front and both ends, the Confederates abandoned the works and fled back to their camps, littering the road from the battlefield with the equipment that slowed their escape. Some of the newly arrived Confederate troops attempted to row to Nags Head and safety, but many were forced to return. Confederate reinforcements coming from the northern shore of the island met the victorious Union soldiers and were pushed back into the Confederate camps, where they were forced to surrender.

Roanoke Island was captured by Burnside at a very modest cost in casualties to his men. Official Union losses were given as thirty-seven killed, 214 wounded, and thirteen missing. Confederate losses were only twenty-two killed and fifty-eight wounded. However, 2,500 Confederate soldiers surrendered. The Union, still reeling from the Bull Run disaster, garnered much more than just war materiel from this victory. Coupled with the February 15, 1862, victory at Fort Donelson in Tennessee, the Union war effort gained a much needed boost; the Union war spirit was reborn with the capture of Roanoke Island. On a military front, Roanoke Island opened up the interior riverline port cities, such as Plymouth and New Bern, to direct invasion as well as to threaten Morehead City, North Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia, from their weaker rear areas. By the summer of 1862, most of the coastal areas of North Carolina had fallen to Union forces. They began seriously threatening the vital rail line from the Confederate capital in Richmond, Virginia, to the last open port in North Carolina, Wilmington. With the huge success at Roanoke Island, the Union stranglehold on the South was ever tightening.

In the immediate aftermath of the battle, many of the enslaved people on the island sought freedom and formed a freedmen's colony on the island. There they created schools, jobs, homes, and more, which at its height had over 3,500 people at the colony. Though there are no battlefields or forts left on the Outer Banks, this battle and the subsequent occupation by the Union Army are important to the history of this area and the people who live here, many of whom are descendants of the people whose homes saw fighting and who built the freedmen's colony on Roanoke Island. Though the victory of Roanoke Island may seem small compared to the major battles like Gettysburg and Vicksburg, this short battle on a tiny island on the Outer Banks helped change the direction of the Civil War and the country.