Well, the girlfriend pulled through for me again and got me a really cool Christmas gift. This is an 1866 map of Roanoke Island as it was on February 8th, 1862 during the American Civil War. The image below details the Confederate forces on the island, and the rebel and U.S. fleets. Note the three forts on Roanoke Island, and the Confederate line of defense in the center of the island between the "O" and "K" in the word ROANOKE.
The Confederates held Roanoke in order to provide a backdoor way of getting supplies to and from Norfolk, VA, through the sounds to the north. The Union dispatched Navy and Army gunboat fleets, as well as a division of infantry under the command of Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. He would have 10,000 troops under his command, while the Confederates would only have about 2,000 under the command of Colonel Henry M. Shaw.
The battle began on February 7th when the U.S. gunboats engaged the rebel forts in an artillery battle. At the end of the first day, Burnside was able to land his troops on the shore unopposed, but the darkness forced them to retire for the day. The next day, February 8th, the Union infantry advanced into the Confederate line shown in the center of the map and were stopped. The Confederate line poured blistering rifle and some cannon fire into the Federals. The Confederates thought the swamps on either of their flanks would prevent forward progress by the enemy, and did not place any men there. This proved to be a fatal error, as Union troops poured around their line, crushing it. The Confederate infantry had no place to go, their forts being captured from the rear, and the entire force surrendered to the Union.
The Union now had control over the North Carolina sounds, and Norfolk, VA, no longer had access to the ocean.
P.S. In 1587 the English would try to establish their first colony in the New World. The colony failed however, disappearing under mysterious circumstances. Where the "Lost Colony" of Roanoke Island went is one of the most debated events in American history.
