School History of North Carolina Part 37

9. It was early seen in North Carolina that fortifications were necessary at Hatteras for the defence of the many broad waters covering so large a portion of the eastern counties. A small sand-work, known as Fort Hatteras, with an outlying flank defence, called Battery Clark, was the only reliance for the protection of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.

10. Before these weak defences a large Federal fleet appeared on August 27th, 1861, and by means of its superior armament, lay securely beyond the range of the guns mounted in Fort Hatteras, while pouring in a tremendous discharge of shot and sh.e.l.l. The Federals having effected a landing on the beach, and most of the caution being dismounted in the fort, it was thought best by Colonel W. F. Martin, on the 29th, to surrender the fort.

11. In two days' operations the whole tier of eastern counties was thus laid bare to the incursions of Federal troops and cruisers. There was great sorrow for the captured garrison, and general alarm and uneasiness; but the spirit of resistance was undaunted, and troops continued volunteering by thousands.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is the subject of this lesson? How did the North Carolinians consider their departure from the Union?

2. What preparations for war were made by the State, even before its secession? Who commanded the first regiment?

3. Relate General Butler's exploit.

4. Give an account of the battle of Big Bethel.

What Confederate soldier was slain?

5. What is said of this event?

6. Where were North Carolina troops next engaged in battle?

7. What signal aid was rendered by Colonel Charles F. Fisher?

What were the effects of this victory?

8. What did Mr. Lincoln learn from these battles?

9. At what point on the North Carolina coast were fortifications specially needed?

10. Describe the Federal attack on Fort Hatteras. Point out Hatteras on the map.

11. What was the result of the fall of Hatteras?

CHAPTER LVI.

THE COMBAT DEEPENS.

A. D. 1662.

1862.

By the fortune of war in the Revolution, as again in 1812, the State was nearly always left with a small proportion of her own troops to defend the home of their birth. So, also, when the spring opened in 1862, though fully forty thousand men of the State were under arms, they were to be found in Virginia and South Carolina, except a small force left at Wilmington and Roanoke Island.

2. This condition of affairs did not result, however, from any indifference on the part of the general government to us, but from the fact that the main strategic points were in other States, and fortunate it was for North Carolina that this was so; for whatever may have been the necessities of local defence, or the evils incident to an unprotected coastline, or those inseparable from its occupation by the enemy at various points, they cannot be compared to the evils resulting from the prolonged occupation of a State by large contending armies.

3. Roanoke Island was the only hope of defence for Albemarle Sound and the many rivers flowing therein. To defend it, General Henry A. Wise was sent with a small force to be added to the Eighth and Thirty-first Regiments of North Carolina Volunteers.

He was sick on February 7th, 1862, when General Burnside, with a great fleet and fifteen thousand Federal troops, sailed up Croatan Sound and began the attack.

4. Colonel Henry M. Shaw, of the Eighth North Carolina Regiment, was in command, and made a gallant but unavailing defence. The Federals landed and moved up the island in the rear of the forts which had been constructed to prevent the pa.s.sage of vessels to the west of the defences. The only recourse left was to abandon the lower batteries and concentrate the Southern troops at a point near the centre of Roanoke Island.

5. It was hoped that the mora.s.ses, indenting both sh.o.r.es and leaving a narrow isthmus, would enable the small Confederate force to defend that position; but the bravery and enterprise of the enemy enabled him to turn both flanks, and nothing was left Colonel Shaw and his command but to fall back to the northern end of the island and there lay down their arms.

6. The battle had been bravely fought for two days, and the two thousand Confederate prisoners and their gallant leader became captives, but only after inflicting heavy loss upon the a.s.sailants. The place was untenable against superior naval appliances, and quite men enough had been sacrificed in view of the impossibility of preventing its isolation by Federal fleets.

7. Very different were the defensive capacities of the city of New Bern. It was immediately foreseen that this important place would be next a.s.sailed, and with enough troops it would have been an easy feat to have held it indefinitely, but whether its value as a strategic point would have justified such a defence may be doubted. The Confederate authorities entrusted its defence to General L. O'B. Branch, who had no experience in military affairs, and in whose command, like General Wise's, was not a single regiment that had been under fire, though there were skillful officers of lower rank who had seen much service in the old army. On March 14th, General Burnside, with the army and fleet so lately the victors at Roanoke, moved to attack the forts which had been constructed just below the junction of Neuse and Trent Rivers.

8. General Branch had in his command the Seventh, Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, Thirty-third and Thirty-fifth North Carolina Regiments, a portion of the Nineteenth (cavalry), with Brem's and Latham's light batteries and a small force of militia. These were disposed along a line stretching from Fort Thompson, on Neuse River, across the railroad to an impa.s.sable swamp, which afforded abundant protection to his right flank.

9. The battle began at seven o'clock in the morning and raged until noon. The Federal attacks were repeatedly repelled until, by the fatal flight of the militia in the centre, the Confederate lines were broken and a precipitate retreat ensued. General Branch lost two hundred prisoners and seventy men killed and wounded; and, besides these, all his guns and stores. He was beaten in his first battle, when perhaps naught but defeat was expected, but he soon won high reputation as a brave soldier and skillful officer. Victory is not always possible to the best generalship. He met, in a few days at Kinston, reinforcements that would have enabled him to hold his ground at New Bern; but like many other earthly succors, they came too late for real benefit.

10. The fall of New Bern sealed the fate of the Confederate forces at Fort Macon. Colonel M. I. White, with five companies of the Tenth Regiment (artillery), endured the Federal bombardment until the work was in danger of being blown up. He surrendered the fort on April 26th, 1862. These disasters at home were indeed calculated to dishearten, but the only visible effect upon the people at large was to increase the numbers of those who were still volunteering by thousands to defend North Carolina and the Confederate States.

11. In the spring of 1862, General McClellan, the Federal commander, having determined to make his advance on Richmond by way of James River, and having made his preparations to that effect, General Johnston transferred the Confederate troops from Mana.s.sas to the peninsula between the James and York Rivers, thus placing his army between McClellan and Richmond.

12. At Williamsburg occurred the first memorable conflict of the year between the two great armies struggling on the soil of the Old Dominion. In this conflict the charge of the Fifth North Carolina Regiment, under Colonel D. K. MacRae, excited the admiration and its terrible losses the sympathy of both friend and foe.

13. In the b.l.o.o.d.y and glorious campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, General T. J. Jackson grew immortal before the coming of midsummer. The gallantry of the Twenty-first North Carolina Regiment at Winchester, like that of the Fourth at Seven Pines, was as conspicuous as b.l.o.o.d.y. In this latter battle, where so many other men of the State were slain, the Fourth Regiment, under Colonel George B. Anderson, lost four hundred and sixty-two men, out of five hundred and twenty.

14. In the last days of June nearly all of the North Carolina regiments and many Southern troops were concentrated around Richmond, under the command of General Robert E. Lee, in place of General Johnston, who had been wounded at Seven Pines. In the week of battle which ended in the overthrow of the great investing army of General McClellan, they lost thousands of their bravest and best. Ninety-two regiments const.i.tuted the divisions of Jackson, Longstreet, D. H. Hill and A. P. Hill. These were the forces that drove the Federals to their ships; and forty-six of these regiments belong to North Carolina. It may be safely a.s.serted that more than half the men actively engaged and disabled during that terrible week were citizens of North Carolina.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is said or North Carolina's forces in the wars?

2. What is said of this condition of affairs?

3. What force was sent to defend Albermarle Sound?

4. Can you tell of Burnside's attack?

5. What was the conclusion of the engagement?

6. What is said of this battle?

7. To what point was attention next directed? What officer was in command? When was the Federal attack made?

8. What composed General Branch's command?

9. Describe the battle.

10. What is said of the fall of New Bern? What fort was next surrendered? Where is Fort Mason?

11. What military movements were made in Virginia?

12. What is said of the gallant charge of the Fifth Regiment at Williamsburg?

13. What regiments are specially mentioned as partic.i.p.ants at Winchester and Seven Pines?