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Battle of Roanoke Island

Battle of Roanoke Island
Part of the American Civil War
Currier and Ives print showing a group of blue-clad infantrymen charging a mound from which projects the mouth of a Confederate cannon. Two soldiers lie on the ground, presumably dead; a third is falling backward as if shot, still clutching his rifle. The most prominent feature is a standing soldier near the center, bearing an American flag. Other soldiers are shown to his right. In the distance is another American flag that is being waved from the top of the mound by a figure seen only in outline.
Capture of Roanoke Island, Feby. 8th 1862, by Currier and Ives
Date February 7, 1862 (1862-02-07)– February 8, 1862 (1862-02-08)
Location Roanoke Island and Croatan Sound, North Carolina
Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States United States (Union) Confederate States of America CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Ambrose Burnside
Louis M. Goldsborough 		Henry A. Wise
Henry M. Shaw
Units involved
Department of North Carolina
North Atlantic Blockading Squadron 		Wise's Legion
Strength
10,000 3,000
Casualties and losses
264 total
37 killed
214 wounded
13 missing		 2,643 total
23 killed
58 wounded
62 missing
2,500 captured

The opening phase of what came to be called the Burnside Expedition, the Battle of Roanoke Island was an amphibious operation of the American Civil War, fought on February 7–8, 1862, in the North Carolina Sounds a short distance south of the Virginia border. The attacking force consisted of a flotilla of gunboats of the Union Navy drawn from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough, a separate group of gunboats under Union Army control, and an army division led by Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The defenders were a group of gunboats from the Confederate States Navy, termed the Mosquito Fleet, under Capt. William F. Lynch, and about 2,000 Confederate soldiers commanded locally by Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise. The defense was augmented by four forts facing on the water approaches to Roanoke Island, and two outlying batteries. At the time of the battle, Wise was hospitalized, so leadership fell to his second in command, Col. Henry M. Shaw.

During the first day of the battle, the Federal gunboats and the forts on shore engaged in a gun battle, with occasional contributions from the Mosquito Fleet. Late in the day, Burnside's soldiers went ashore unopposed; they were accompanied by six howitzers manned by sailors. As it was too late to fight, the invaders went into camp for the night.

On the second day, February 8, the Union soldiers advanced but were stopped by an artillery battery and accompanying infantry in the center of the island. Although the Confederates thought that their line was safely anchored in impenetrable swamps, they were flanked on both sides and their soldiers were driven back to refuge in the forts. The forts were taken in reverse. With no way for his men to escape, Col. Shaw surrendered to avoid pointless bloodshed.


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