Siege of Fort Macon The Siege of Fort Macon took place from March 23 to April 26 , 1862 , on the Outer Banks of Carteret County , North Carolina . It was part of Union Army General Ambrose E . Burnside ' s North Carolina Expedition during the American Civil War . In late March , Major General Burnside ’ s army advanced on Fort Macon , a casemate d masonry fort that commanded the channel to Beaufort , 35 miles ( 56 km ) southeast of New Bern . The Union force invested the fort with siege works and on April 25 opened an accurate fire on the fort , soon breaching the masonry walls . Within a few hours the fort ' s scarp began to collapse , and in late afternoon the Confederate commander , Colonel Moses J . White , ordered the raising of a white flag . Burnside ' s terms of surrender were accepted , and the Federal troops took possession of the fort the next morning . Background . Fort Macon was one of a system of coastal forts that were built around the borders of the still - young United States following the War of 1812 . It was built on the eastern end of Bogue Banks , in the Outer Banks of North Carolina , and was intended to defend the entrance to the ports of Beaufort and Morehead City . Begun in 1826 , it was completed and received its first garrison in 1834 . As it was intended for defense against attacking enemy naval forces , it was built of masonry . Gunfire from a rolling ship ' s deck was not accurate enough at that time to be able to break down brick and stone walls . Although the advent of rifled artillery would soon make its walls vulnerable , no alterations were made in the fort . It was a generation out of date when the Civil War came . After the first spate of enthusiasm , the fort was allowed to deteriorate . The woodwork rotted , the ironwork rusted , and gun carriages were allowed to decay . The garrison was steadily reduced in size , until by the time of the beginning of the Civil War the care of the fort was entrusted to a single sergeant . When the fort was taken over by North Carolina troops under Captain Josiah Solomon Pender on April 14 ( before the state had seceded from the Union ) , only four guns were mounted . The local military authorities immediately set about improving the armament . A total of 56 pieces ( 5 8 - inch and 2 10 - inch columbiads , 19 24 - pounders , 32 32 - pounders , and 6 field guns ) were mounted , but they had ammunition for only three days of action . At the time of the siege , the garrison of the fort numbered about 430 officers and men , commanded by Colonel Moses J . White . Sickness reduced this number by about a third . Despite the poor diet and other living conditions that they suffered , only one man died . Morale among the men was generally not good , as they were cut off from their families , and White was unpopular , both with his men and with the people of Beaufort . A few men deserted during the siege . When battle came , the fort was outdated , inadequately armed , poorly supplied , and intended for a different form of combat than that it faced . These deficiencies are adequate to explain why the fort succumbed so readily at the first blow . Prelude . Shortly after the Union forces had taken possession of Hatteras Island on the Outer Banks , Brigadier General Ambrose E . Burnside developed a plan to expand Federal control of eastern North Carolina by a joint Army - Navy expedition . His plan was approved by General - in - Chief George B . McClellan and the War Department . He was given authority to recruit and organize a division , to be known as the Coast Division , which would work with the Navy ' s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron to take control of the North Carolina Sounds and their adjacent cities . The expedition that came to be known by his name got under way in January 1862 , and in early February had made its first conquest , Roanoke Island . Following that , the joint forces went on to other victories at Elizabeth City and New Bern ( often spelled New Berne at the time ) . Most of the Confederate Army were forced away from the coast as far inland as Kinston by these battles . The major exception was the garrison of Fort Macon . So long as Fort Macon remained in Confederate possession , Burnside ( recently promoted to rank of major general ) could not use the ports at Beaufort and Morehead City , so immediately following the capture of New Bern on March 14 , he ordered Brigadier General John G . Parke , commander of his Third Brigade , to reduce the fort . Parke began by seizing the towns along the inner shore : Carolina City on March 21 , Morehead City on March 22 , Newport on March 23 , and finally Beaufort on March 25 . Communications between the garrison and other Confederate forces were thereby severed . Parke also had to repair a railroad bridge at Newport , burned by the retreating Confederates following the loss of New Bern ; the railroad was needed for the transport of his siege artillery . Siege . On March 23 , General Parke sent a message from his headquarters at Carolina City to Colonel White , demanding the surrender of the fort . He offered to release the men on parole if the fort was turned over intact . White replied tersely , " I have the honor to decline evacuating Fort Macon . " The siege can be regarded as starting with this exchange . The investment of the fort was not yet complete , but that was accomplished on March 29 , when a company from Parke ' s brigade crossed the sound and landed unopposed on Bogue Banks . The Confederate infantry that would have defended against the landing , the 26th North Carolina , had been included in the retreat following the Battle of New Bern . Federal siege artillery followed , and Parke set up four batteries that would bear on the fort : four 8 - inch ( 20 . 3 cm ) mortars at a range of 1200 yards ( 1100 meters ) ; four 10 - inch ( 25 . 4 cm ) mortars at a range of 1600 yards ( 1460 meters ) ; three 30 - pounder ( 13 . 6 kg ) rifled Parrotts at a range of 1300 yards ( 1190 meters ) ; and a 12 - pounder ( 5 . 4 kg ) boat howitzer at a range of 1200 yards ( 1100 meters ) . The batteries were moved up at night and remained hidden behind sand dunes until they were ready to open fire . The defenders were aware of these activities , but could not waste ammunition by firing at unseen targets . Patrols sent out from the fort to harass the Union soldiers were driven back , usually without loss . On April 17 , General Burnside could state in his report to the War Department , " I hope to reduce the fort within ten days . " His prediction proved to be remarkably accurate . Preparations were completed by April 23 , and on that day General Burnside communicated directly with Colonel White and repeated his demand for surrender , again offering to release the prisoners on parole . Colonel White once more refused , so Burnside on April 24 ordered General Parke to begin the bombardment as soon as possible . Parke waited until nightfall to open the embrasures for his guns behind the dunes . The bombardment began at dawn on April 25 . At first , the gunners in the fort manned their pieces and replied vigorously , but they were unable to inflict damage on the Federal guns protected by the dunes . The defenders were also distracted by the appearance of four vessels from the Blockading Squadron : the steamers USS " Daylight " , " State of Georgia " , and " Chippewa " , and the bark " Gemsbok " . Until this time , the Navy had not been involved with the siege , but Commander Samuel Lockwood responded to the sound of gunfire and brought his section of the fleet into action . The weather was not good for a naval bombardment , however ; a strong wind created waves that caused the vessels to rock badly enough to disrupt their aim , and after about an hour , the fleet withdrew . The Navy also supplied a pair of floating batteries to the attack , but again the waves interfered , and only one of them got into action . It is not certain whether the fort sustained any hits from the ships . The Confederate return fire was accurate enough to hit two vessels , doing little damage and slightly wounding only one man . The initial fire from the mortars on shore was inaccurate , but a Signal Corps officer in Beaufort , Lieutenant William J . Andrews , acting on his own responsibility , was able to deliver messages to the battery commanders telling them how to adjust their range . After noon , virtually all shots were on target . Nineteen guns were dismounted . The walls of the fort began to crumble under the continued pounding , and in mid - afternoon Colonel White began to fear that the magazine would be breached . At 4 : 30 p . m . , he decided that the fort could no longer hold out , so he ordered that a white flag be raised . Firing on both sides then ceased . Colonel White met with General Parke to discuss terms , and Parke at first demanded unconditional surrender . White asked him for more favorable conditions , and referred to the terms that General Burnside had offered on March 23 . Parke did not concede , but agreed not to renew the bombardment until he could consult with Burnside . Burnside reasoned that White could hold out at least one more day , and further action would only cause more casualties and greater damage to the fort . He therefore agreed to adhere to his first terms . The men in the fort were allowed to give their paroles , meaning that they would not take up arms against the United States until properly exchanged . They then were permitted to return to their homes , taking with them their personal property . Shortly after dawn on April 26 , the Confederate flag was lowered , the defenders marched out , and Union soldiers of the 5th Rhode Island marched in . Aftermath . The battle had been relatively bloodless , at least by standards that soon would be common in the Civil War . On the Union side , only one man was killed , and two soldiers and one seaman were wounded . On the Confederate side , seven were killed outright , two died of wounds , and sixteen were wounded . Although the Burnside Expedition had gained notable success at little cost in North Carolina , little was done to exploit it . Wilmington , for example , would seem to have been vulnerable , but it was not attacked until the final days of the war . Burnside was recalled shortly after the victory at Fort Macon , to assist General George B . McClellan in the Peninsula Campaign in Virginia . No further major offensive actions took place , and North Carolina became a secondary theater until late in the war . The battle site is now Fort Macon State Park . Notes . Abbreviations used in these notes :