The Confederate Congress and the Loss of Roanoke Island

The Confederate Congress and the Loss of Roanoke Island Richard A. Sauers On February 7, 1862, a Federal army-navy expedition led by Brig. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and Rear Adm. Louis M. Goldsborough attacked the Confederate stronghold of Roanoke Island, North Carolina. The Union naval bombardment engaged Southern shore batteries, rendered the small North Carolina naval squadron impotent, and covered the landing of 10,000 Union infantry. The following day, February 8, Burnside's troops assailed an earthwork protecting the shore batteries and drove Col. Henry M. Shaw's infantry from it. Shaw, unable to evacuate the island, surrendered 2,500 officers and men to Burnside. Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise, Shaw's brigade commander, gathered survivors and retreated toward Norfolk. The surrender of Roanoke Island was the first major Confederate defeat east of the Alleghenies and was a cause for concern in Richmond. While Burnside's troops consolidated their gains and made further inroads along the North Carolina coast, Confederate officers and civilians began to seek the reasons for the disaster at Roanoke Island. In a brief letter to President Jefferson Davis four days after the surrender, General Wise outlined the reasons for the defeat. He sought reinforcements in vain. Lack of time and bad weather prevented the defenses from being upgraded. Most of the North Carolina troops were poorly trained and badly led. The forts were all out of place. Still, his men fought the enemy as best they could before yielding.' Wise followed this short missive with his report of the battle on February 21. Rather than send the document to his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger of the Department of Norfolk, in accordance with military protocol, Wise forwarded his massive report directly to Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin. 1 United States War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 128 vols. (Washington, DC: 1880-1901), ser. ?, vol. 9:111-12 (hereafter cited as OR). Civil War History, Vol. XL, No. 2, © 1994 by The Kent State University Press THE LOSS OF ROANOKE ISLANDI35 Covering 143 manuscript pages, Wise's "full report" was more accurately a commentary on his correspondence and orders received since his assignment as Huger's Fourth Brigade commander in December 1861. The voluminous correspondence did not include the reports of his subordinates on Roanoke Island or a listing of casualties. Wise did include a copy of his February 10 report to Huger, in which he described the results of the engagement from the facts he had then collected. However, the general had not yet received any accounts from his subordinates. Thus, his February 10 letter cannot be considered a true official report. Wise concluded his commentary by asking for a court of inquiry "as to the defenses of Roanoke Island, involving the conduct thereby of all who are accountable for their conduct, or at least my own responsibility."2 Newspapers were already calling for an official inquiry into the disaster. On February 19 the editor of the Raleigh Weekly Register asked why the island lacked a sufficient number of troops to repel the invaders when it was known for weeks that Burnside's armada was at Harteras Inlet. In a separate editorial the paper called for an investigation and postulated that either General Huger or the Richmond government would be found guilty. In its issue of February 26, the same paper continued to seek an inquiry.3 The editor of the Newbern Daily Progress also was critical of the disaster. "Sand batteries, short range guns, and no means of escape—who wonders that the Island was taken?" said its editor in the February 1 1 edition. Three days later, the Progress quoted an article from the Norfolk Day Book, which criticized the navy's role in the engagement. A separate editorial wondered how Commodore William F. Lynch could not locate the enemy fleet when Maj. E. D. Hall, in command of troops stationed in Hyde County, had notified Brig. Gen. Lawrence O. Branch of the fleet by January 20.4 An anonymous Confederate officer sent a letter to the Richmond Examiner, which printed the communication on February 21. This...