The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-05-19
and easier to fortify. They chose

They planned an artificial bottle.
neck at the northern end of the
sound. Between Redstone Point ant
Weir Point, they drove heavy pill
ings and sank old vessels loaded
with sand so as to leave only {
narrow opening. At Redstone Point
they sank an old canal boat in the
mud and mounted eight guns OF
her to form Fort Forest. At Wei
Point they built Fort Huger, 6
twelve-gun efnplacement, a four
gun battery named Fort blanchard
about half a mile to the south, anC
still farther south on Port Point
an eight-gun battery. For defense
against small boats on Roanoke
Sound, they put a two-gun bat
terry on Midgett's Hammock. just
below Ballast Point. The confeder'
ate engineers believed that the
marshes and cypress swamps II
the middle of Roanoke Island
would prevent an attack by lanc
from the south end of the island
They did, however, construct 6
three-gun emplacement named
Fort Russell across the causeway
through the morass.
Also in the fall of 1861, a Union
expedition was being prepared I'M
der the command of General Burn
side. He collected men and light
draught steamers, sailing vessels
and barges from the States border
ing on the Northern seacoast. 1t
was prepared at Annapolis, and
left there on January 9, 1862. Its
destination was so secrect that ev-
en- the captains of the ships did
not know where they were going
until they opened sealed orders off
Cape Henry. A motley fleet of 80
vessels had been assembled, the in
dividual vessels being strengthened
and armed. Some $4,000 soldiers
were on them.
They reached Hatteras Inlet with
out loss. At least five ships were
stranded or otherwise lost trying
to get into Pamlico Sound. Storms
delayed the others more than two
weeks. Hunger and thirst threat
ened those on the ships. The storms
let up toward the end of January.
and by February 4, all
the fleet was across the swash.
The Confederates were having
their troubles, too. Brig-Gen. Hen
ry A. Wise, former governor OF
Virginia, was ordered to take COM
mand of the defense of the island,
but was denied more troops. An
engineer officer reported that the
forts on Roanoke Island chad been
with such an utter
want of care and skill that they
will scarcely be of any service"
Wise left Richmond with what SOL
diers he had. On the way, a NUT
nous feeling developed among the
troops, and two were ordered shot
as an example to the others. At
Portsmouth, Virginia, Wise found
there were no horses for his artll-
lery, so that arm was practically
useless. Arriving at Roanoke, Is
Land, he put his troops to work Che
found he had about 5000 of them)
and took command also of the Con-
federate "Mosquito Fleet"
When he found how big the
Burnside expedition was, Gen. Wise
hurried back to Richmond to ask
for more troops. Again, he was re-
fused, although there were $4,000
Confederates soldiers on occupation
duty in Norfolk. Back on the Outer
Banks early in February, the Cen
eral was stricken with pneumonia.
He went to a Mays Head hotel and
command was turned over to Col.
H. NJ. Shaw.
The Federal attack began on the
morning of February z, 1862. The
gunboats started to pass through
Roanoke Marshes channel, followed
by other naval vessels and trans
ports, into Roanoke Sound. The
seven Confederate gunboats were
behind the line of sunken ships and
pilings, ready for battle, which be-
gan about 1890 am. By noon
some Federal warships We're con-
centrating their fire on the Mo-
squito Fleet, others We're trading
shots with the shore batteries. The
battle lasted all afternoon, with the
Federal Admiral Goldsboro re-
fusing to be tempted through the
narrow unmarked channel in the
barrier and into the direct fire OF
the more northern forts. Two OF
the defending gunboats were mt
and the remainder had to retire
up Albemarle Sound when theil
ammunition was exhausted. Al
dusk the Federal warships were
still trading shots with the shore
batteries, and the transports were
anchored in the sound out OF range
of the Confederate fire.
Early in the afternoon, Gen
Burnside had ordered Lieut.. An
drews, a party of 10 soldiers and &