The S. R. Spaulding, with General Burnside on board, next passed through, but the remainder of the transports were detained about two hours. The rebel gunboats could now be seen close in shore, evidently under the guns of batteries on shore. As the fleet passed into the sound, a signal was fired from one of the rebel gunboats, to announce its approach. This was about half-past ten o’clock. At half-past eleven the first gun was fired from the flag-ship, and was replied to by the rebels. The Flag-officer hoisted the signal: “This day our country expects that every man will do his duty.” The effect was electric. The men worked their guns with unflagging energy, determined that their country should have nothing to complain of in relation to them. As the Federal vessels came within shorter range, the fire became more rapid, but the regular fire did not commence until noon, when the flag-ship displayed the signal for close action.
The number of the rebel gunboats visible in the early part of the engagement was seven. As the vessels came into closer action, they moved to the northward, with the design of drawing the Union fleet after them, and bring them under the guns of their batteries on the island. At twelve o’clock the engagement became general, between the retreating gunboats of the rebels and the Union fleet, varied by an occasional shot from a battery on shore. The firing was exceedingly brisk for some time, but the distance was evidently too great for destructive effect. The one hundred-pound Parrott gun on board the Southfield, to which the Flag-Officer transferred his flag, boomed forth terrific explosions, followed by the roar and crash of flying shells. The puff of smoke in the air was almost simultaneous with the splash of fragments in the water. The rebel gunboats kept up a steady fire in reply. Their fire was varied at times by the louder report of a hundred-pound Parrott gun on board one of their vessels. The Sawyer gun on board the Fanny, which was captured by the enemy at Hatteras Inlet, was the most annoying in its effects, as the range was long and very accurate.
The fire from the fort indicated a weak force working the guns. The rebel gunboats retired steadily a considerable distance up the sound. A line of piles driven into the bed across the principal channel, obstructed the progress of the Union vessels in the pursuit of the retreating rebels, who occupied an inner channel under the guns of their battery. The Union fleet now turned their attention to the fort, which kept up a steady and rapid fire.
On the afternoon of the 7th, the transports, with the land forces, were all brought safely through Roanoke Inlet, and clustered securely in rear of the bombarding fleet. General Burnside gave immediate orders for landing the forces, which was done at a small cove, known as Ashby’s Harbor. In less than an hour four thousand men were landed, and by eleven at night, the entire force, excepting one regiment, were on the island, and their bivouac-fires lighted up the shore and the woods for the distance of a mile.
At nine o’clock on the morning of the 8th, a few shots were exchanged between the Federal gunboats and the battery, which ceased after fifteen minutes’ duration, and was not renewed during the day. The rebel gunboats had retreated, and all interest now centered in the movements of the land forces.
From definite information received by General Burnside, the position of all the works on the island was clearly known, and his movements were based on this knowledge. The plan of attack consisted of a central attacking column, led by Brigadier-General Foster; a left flanking column to attack the right of the enemy’s work, under Brigadier-General Reno, and a right flank column to attack the left of the enemy’s position, under the command of Brigadier-General Parke.
The approach to the enemy’s position was through a swampy wood, with a dense undergrowth, rendering it almost impenetrable. An ordinary cart-road leading through this wood from the shore to the fieldwork, a distance of about a mile, was the only mode of communication. The woods in front of the battery had been cut down a distance of three hundred yards, forming an open space to be played on by the rebel guns, about two hundred feet wide. The woods immediately in rear of the work were also cut down to permit the manœuvreing of their own forces.
Their battery consisted of an earthwork with three faces covering the open space before, and the woods at each side of the open space, but with a general direction of fire to the front. The guns were mounted in embrasure, and consisted of a twenty-four-pounder brass Dahlgren howitzer, a long eighteen-pounder brass field-gun, and a twelve-pounder brass field piece. In front of the work was a ditch eight feet wide and about three feet deep, filled with water. The earthwork was about thirty-five yards wide, and was erected across the road. The ground in front of the work was a deep marsh, on which the trees which were felled still lay. The difficult nature of this ground was increased by the pits from which the turf and earth for the fieldwork had been taken. Branches were strewn over the front of the work, making it impossible to discover it from the wood in front.
The defending force consisted of about three hundred men, within the breastwork, and about two thousand as a reserve, partly deployed as skirmishers on the left of the battery. The rebels relied chiefly for the defence of their flanks on the almost impenetrable nature of the wood on each side. Their entire force, with the exception of the force working the battery, was scattered in front and in the woods on the left as skirmishers.
The Federal army advanced from the bivouac-ground of the evening previous, where they had spent the night with nothing but thin overcoats to protect them from a cold, driving rain. They had left their knapsacks and blankets on the transports, each man carrying nothing but his haversack, with three days’ provisions, and his cartridge-box, with forty rounds of ball-cartridge. The centre, under the command of General Foster, was composed of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts, Colonel Upton; Twenty-third Massachusetts, Colonel Kurtz; Twenty-seventh Massachusetts, Colonel Lee, and the Tenth Connecticut, Colonel Russell, and moved forward about eight o’clock. They were followed by the second column, under General Reno, consisting of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, Lieutenant-Colonel Maggi; the Fifty-first New York, (Shepard Rifles,) Colonel Ferrero; Ninth New Jersey, and the Fifty-first Pennsylvania, Colonel Hartraaf. The third column, led by General Parke, was formed of the Fourth Rhode Island, Colonel Rodman; First battalion, Fifth Rhode Island, Major Wright; and Ninth New York, Colonel Hawkins.