struck it on the 30th, at Booneville, | had taken, with 159 prisoners, two 24 miles from Corinth, in the midst of an unexpected retreat of the Rebel army, which had commenced on the 26th. Beauregard had held Corinth so long as possible against Halleck's overwhelming force, and had commenced its evacuation by sending off a part of his sick and wounded. Elliott captured 20 cars, laden with small arms, ammunition, stores, baggage, &c., with some hundreds of Confederate sick, whom he paroled, burning the engine and trains. The evacuation was completed during the night of the 29th; the Rebel musketry-firing having ceased at 9 a. M. of the preceding day. Explosions and fires during the night gave plain intimations of the enemy's departure; so that some of our officers in the advance rode safely into town at 6 next morning, and reported no enemy present. Piles of provisions were found in flames, and one full warehouse undamaged; but never a gun. Beauregard retreated to Tupelo, pursued by Gen. Pope so far as Baldwin and Guntown, but without material results. Our army was disposed along the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad; which, by the falling of the Tennessee to a Summer stage, had become its line of supply. hours before. Thus provided, he had uncontested possession of 100 miles of the Memphis and Charleston road before night, or from Stevenson on the east to Decatur on the west; seizing five more locomotives at Stevenson, and pushing on so far west as Tuscumbia, whence he sent an expedition so far south as Russelville, Ala., capturing and appropriating Confederate property on all hands, without the loss of a life. He took" Bridgeport, Ala., with a force of five regiments, by striking rapidly and attacking from a quarter whence he was not looked for, driving out a force nearly equal in number to his own, with a loss of 72 killed and wounded, 350 prisoners, and 2 guns; while his own loss was inconsiderable. He was soon compelled, by the gathering of Rebel forces around him, to abandon Tuscumbia and all south of the Tennessee, burning the railroad bridges at Decatur and Bridgeport, but holding firmly and peaceably all of Alabama north of that river. Had he been even moderately rëenforced, he would have struck and probably could have destroyed the great Rebel armories and founderies in Georgia, or have captured Chattanooga; which was assailed," under his orders, by Gen. Negley, who was driven off by a Rebel force under Gen. E. Kirby Smith. Mitchel's activity and energy poorly qualified him for a subordinate position under Buell; so he was trans Gen. O. M. Mitchel, with a division of Buell's army, had left Nashville simultaneously with his commander, but by a more easterly route, advancing through Murfreesboro', Shelby-ferred, in June, to the command at ville, Fayetteville, to Huntsville, Ala., which he surprised at daylight," capturing 17 locomotives and a large number of passenger and freight-cars, beside a train which he 7 April 9 " April 29. 14 June 6, Port Royal, S. C., where he died." Gen. Halleck was likewise summoned" from the West to serve as General-in-Chief at Washington, leaving Gen. Grant in command at Corinth. "July 23, 7 Oct, 20. GEN. BURNSIDE AT HATTERAS INLET. 133 73 IV. BURNSIDE IN NORTH CAROLINA. GEN. AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE and | tle still deeper in the sand, until she Com. L. M. Goldsborough led an expedition, which had in good part been fitted out in New York, and which left Fortress Monroe at the opening of the year; and, doubling Cape Henry, moved southward to Hatteras Inlet, whose defenses had been quietly held by our troops since their capture by Gen. Butler and Com. Stringham five months before.' The naval part of this expedition consisted of 31 steam gunboats, mounting 94 guns; the military of about 11,500 men, mainly from New England, organized in three brigades, under Gens. Foster, Reno, and Parke, and embarked with their material on some 30 to 40 steam transports. The van of the expedition reached the entrance of the Inlet on the 13th; when it was found that, though care had been taken to select or obtain gunboats of such draft as could readily be worked over the bar at high water, yet a large proportion of the transports, through the incompetence or dishonesty of those employed to procure them, were of such draft as rendered them totally unfit for this service. Of these, the propeller City of New York, 600 tons, heavily laden with rifles, ammunition, tents, bedding, and forage, and drawing 16 feet water, when the greatest depth attainable on the bar was but 13, grounded, of course, in attempting to pass it;' when the sea broke completely over her stern, every breaker lifting her, and causing her, as it subsided, to set 'Jan. 11-12, 1862. became a perfect wreck-her masts and smoke-stack cut away, her crew, with life-preservers tied about them, lashed to the rigging to save themselves from being washed overboard by each succeeding billow; and at last, after an endurance of 12 to 15 hours, the raging sea began to lift the deck from the hull with every surge. Ere this, her fires had been extinguished, her boats, all but one, filled or stove, and her men utterly exhausted by long fasting and exposure to the cold waves which broke over them continually; while no attention was paid from the fleet to their signal of distress, or even their hail to the S. R. Spaulding, which passed out to sea. At length, two mechanics, W. H. and Charles A. Beach, of Newark, N. J., launched the yawl, and, aided by engineer Wm. Miller, steward Geo. Mason, and Hugh McCabe, fireman, pulled successfully through the surf, over the bar, to the fleet, whence boats were at once dispatched to take off the remainder of the crew, who were speedily rescued. The vessel and cargo were totally lost; as were the steam gunboat Zouave, the transports Louisiana and Pocahontas, and two or three others. Col. J. W. Allen and Surgeon S. F. Weller, 9th New Jersey, were drowned' by the upsetting of their small boat in the breakers, as they returned to the transport Ann E. Thompson from reporting the arrival of their regiment to Gen. Burn'See Vol. I., p. 599, * Jan. 13. • Jan. 15. side. The National loss in precious | Bartow, when the Rebel gunboats halted and added their fire to that of the fort. A line of piles driven across the channel was evidently ex time, as well as life and property, by the villainy which palmed off on the Government vessels totally unfit for this service, can hardly be overesti-pected to obstruct our advance, but mated. Two or three weeks of desperately hard work were expended on getting over such of the craft as were not wrecked; giving the alarmed Rebels the amplest time to concentrate and fortify. At length, every thing being in readiness, our fleet moved slowly up Pamlico and Croatan Sounds; the gunboats in advance and on the flanks of the transports, formed in three columns, each headed by its flagship, every large steamer having one or two schooners in tow, with the spaces between the columns kept carefully clear, and all moving at the regulated pace of four miles per hour. The fleet consisted in all of 65 vessels, covering a space about two miles square; some 50 transports, mainly schooners, having been left at the Inlet. The day was beautiful; the distance made about 28 miles, when they halted, near sunset, still 10 miles from the southern point of ROANOKE ISLAND, and lay undisturbed through the bright, moonlit night. At 8 A. M., the signal to weigh anchor was given. At 11, progress was arrested, near the south point, by a storm; and the fleet again lay at anchor till next morning, when, at 10 A. M., the order was given to move forward, and the gunboats led the way through the narrow passage known as Roanoke Inlet, into Croatan Sound, driving 7 Rebel gunboats before them. At noon, our gunboats were under fire of the chief Rebel battery on the Island, known as Fort ⚫ February 5, proved inadequate. Soon, our soldiercrowded transports were seen swarming through the Inlet, and preparations were made for landing at Ashby's Harbor, two miles below the fort, which had now been set on fire by our shells. The flames were soon checked, however, and the cannonade on both sides continued; while the Rebel gunboats, which had retreated up the Sound, again appeared and engaged our fleet, till the Curlew, their flag-ship, was struck by a 100-pound shell from the Southfield, and soon enveloped in flames. The firing was continued on both sides till night, without serious loss in men on either. The Rebel barracks in the rear of the fort were destroyed by fire, and their remaining gunboats compelled to withdraw from the contest. All our transports had passed through the Inlet and anchored by 4 P. M., when debarkation commenced under the fire of our gunboats; and 7,500 men were ashore, and most of them in bivouac, before 11 P. M. The Rebel forces in that region were commanded by Brig.-Gen. Henry A. Wise, whose headquarters were at Nag's Head, across Roanoke Sound, and whose forces numbered from 3,000 to 4,000; but hardly 1,000 of them were on the Island prior to the approach of our fleet, when rëenforcements were hurried over, raising the number of its defenders to about 3,000. Col. Shaw, 8th North Carolina, was in immediate command. Fort Bartow, other • Ex-Governor of Virginia, ATTACK ON ROANOKE ISLAND. wise Pork Point battery, was a substantial earthwork, strengthened by abatis and a moat, and mounting 10 guns; battery Huger, on Weir's Point, farther north, had likewise 10 guns; battery Blanchard, midway, but 4. The swampy nature of the approaches, covered with thick ets of shrubs and bushes, was counted on to bar access to Fort Bartow, save by a causeway road completely commanded by its fire. 75 After crouching through a rainy night, some of them in miry bogs, our soldiers were formed and led on at an early hour of the morning.' A large portion of the Rebel force was deployed as skirmishers, and contested our floundering advance through the bog with spirit and effect until near 10 A. M., when our leading regiments were close under the fire of the fort. They had by this time found it impossible to obey the orders which directed them to flank the enemy on either side of the swamp-the abatis proving at most places impassable; and it was resolved to charge over the causeway directly in front. This was done by the 9th New York (Zouaves), Col. Rush C. Hawkins, the 51st, Col. Edward Ferrero, the 23d Massachusetts, Col. John Kurtz, and 21st, Lt.-Col. A. C. Maggi. The 25th and 27th Massachusetts, and 10th Connecticut, Col. Russell, were honorably distinguished in the attack. Col. R. was killed; as was Lt.Col. Viguier de Monteuil, 53d New York, who was serving as a volunteer with Hawkins's Zouaves. Lying down to receive a fire of grape from the Rebel batteries, part of the 51st New York, with Hawkins's Zouaves and the 21st Massachusetts, instantly rose and rushed over the Rebel breastworks, chasing out their defenders and following them in their retreat; securing, by their impetuosity, the capture of the larger number, as no time was given for their escape from the Island. Their loss in killed and wounded was but 55; but among the former were Capt. O. J. Wise, son of the General, and other valuable officers; while their loss in prisoners was not far from 2,700, including Cols. Shaw and Jordan, Lt.-Cols. Fowle and Price, Majors Hill, Yates, and Williamson. Our loss in the bombardment and assault was about 50 killed and 250 wounded. All the cannon, small arms, munitions, provisions, etc., on the Island, were among the spoils of victory. Com. Rowan, with 14 gunboats, was dispatched next evening up Albemarle Sound and Pasquotank river in pursuit of the Rebel gun 8 Feb. 19. boats. He found them, 7 in number, at Elizabeth City; where, after a smart fight, they were set on fire by their crews and abandoned. One of them was captured, the others destroyed. The city itself was likewise set on fire, and in good part destroyed. Four of the gunboats were sent thence to Edenton, on the west end of Albemarle Sound, where eight cannon and a schooner were destroyed, and two schooners, with 4,000 bushels of corn, captured. Com. Rowan's flotilla next moved five miles up the Chowan river to Winton, Hereford county, upon assurances that its citizens wished to return to and be protected by the Union. Their reception was even warmer than they had expected. On reaching the town, they were saluted by a hailstorm of bullets, which constrained them to fall down the river for the night; returning next morning, the village was shelled by them until abandoned, and then burnt. Gen. Burnside next concentrated his forces at Hatteras Inlet, for an attack on NEWBERN, at the junction of the Neuse and Trent rivers, near Pamlico Sound, and the most important seaport of North Carolina. Com. Goldsborough having been relieved, Commander Rowan directed the fleet. Leaving Hatteras in the morning,' the expedition came to about sunset at Slocum's creek, on the south side of the river, 18 miles below Newbern, where a landing was effected next morning, and the troops pushed forward, so fast as ready, to within a mile and a half of the Rebel defenses; the gunboats moving up the river in advance of the troops, and shelling the road • March 12. |