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Tag Archives: Roanoke Island


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The Battle of Roanoke Island

The Battle of Roanoke Island, an amphibious operation of the American Civil War, is fought on February 7-8, 1862, with Irishmen present on both sides of the battle.

The opening phase of what comes to be called the Burnside Expedition, the Battle of Roanoke Island is fought in the North Carolina Sounds, a short distance south of the Virginia border. The attacking force consists of a flotilla of gunboats of the Union Navy drawn from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough, a separate group of gunboats under Union Army control, and an army division led by Major General Ambrose Burnside. The defenders are a group of gunboats from the Confederate States Navy, termed the Mosquito Fleet, under Captain William F. Lynch, and about 2,000 Confederate soldiers commanded locally by Brigadier General Henry A. Wise. The defense is augmented by four forts facing on the water approaches to Roanoke Island, and two outlying batteries. At the time of the battle, Wise is hospitalized, so leadership falls to his second in command, Colonel Henry M. Shaw.

During the first day of the battle, the Federal gunboats and the forts on shore engage in a gun battle, with occasional contributions from the Mosquito Fleet. Late in the day, Burnside’s soldiers go ashore unopposed. They are accompanied by six howitzers manned by sailors. As it is too late to fight, the invaders go into camp for the night.

On the second day, February 8, the Union soldiers advance but are stopped by an artillery battery and accompanying infantry in the center of the island. Although the Confederates believe that their line is safely anchored in impenetrable swamps, they are flanked on both sides and their soldiers are driven back to refuge in the forts. The forts are taken in reverse. With no way for his men to escape, Col. Shaw surrenders to avoid pointless bloodshed.

Aside from the men who are taken into captivity, casualties are rather light by American Civil War standards. The Federal forces lose 37 killed, 214 wounded, and 13 missing. The Confederates lose 23 killed, 58 wounded, and 62 missing.

Roanoke Island remains in Union control for the rest of the war. Immediately after the battle, the Federal gunboats pass the now-silent Confederate forts into Albemarle Sound and destroy what is left of the Mosquito Fleet at the Battle of Elizabeth City. Burnside uses the island as staging ground for later assaults on New Bern and Fort Macon, resulting in their capture. Several minor expeditions take other towns on the sounds. The Burnside Expedition ends in July, when its leader is called to Virginia to take part in the Richmond campaign.

After Burnside leaves, North Carolina ceases to be an active center of the war. With only one or two exceptions, no notable military actions take place until the last days of the conflict, when the Second Battle of Fort Fisher closes Wilmington, the last open port in the Confederacy.


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Birth of Stephen Clegg Rowan, Vice Admiral in the U.S. Navy

Stephen Clegg Rowan, a vice admiral in the United States Navy, who serves during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, is born in Dublin on December 25, 1808. He has a 63-year career, which is one of the longest in the history of the United States Navy.

Rowan comes to the United States at the age of ten and lives in Piqua, Ohio. He is a graduate of Miami University and is appointed as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy on February 1, 1826, at the age of seventeen. Later, he takes an active role in the Mexican–American War, serving as executive officer of the sloop-of-war USS Cyane during the capture of Monterey, California on July 7, 1846, and in the occupation of both San Diego and Los Angeles. In January 1847 he leads a provisional battalion, with the nominal rank of major, of seven companies of naval infantry (along with a company of artillery and a company of sappers and miners) for the recapture of Los Angeles.

Captain of the steam sloop USS Pawnee at the outbreak of the American Civil War, he attempts to relieve Fort Sumter and burn the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. In the fall of 1861, he assists in the capture of the forts at Hatteras Inlet. Then, taking command of a flotilla in the North Carolina sounds, he cooperates in the capture of Roanoke Island in February 1862. Promoted simultaneously to captain and commodore for gallantry, he then supports the capture of Elizabeth City, Edenton, and New Bern. During the summer of 1863, he commands the broadside ironclad USS New Ironsides on blockade duty off Charleston, South Carolina and the following August assumes command of Federal forces in the North Carolina sounds. During this time the rebel semi-submersible CSS David attacks the USS New Ironsides with a spar torpedo. In the ensuing explosion, one man is killed, and a large hole is torn into the ironclad, but she continues her blockading duties.

Commissioned rear admiral on July 25, 1866, Rowan serves as commandant of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard until 1867, when he assumes command of the Asiatic Squadron. Returning in 1870, he is appointed vice admiral, following the death of Admiral David Farragut and the promotion of Vice Admiral David Dixon Porter in August of that year. In December 1870 he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 62 but, like admirals Farragut and Porter before him, he is allowed to remain on active duty.

Rowan serves as commandant of the New York Navy Yard from 1872 to 1876, as governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1881, and as superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., from 1882 until his retirement in 1889.

In 1882 Rowan is elected as a First Class Companion of the District of Columbia Commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS). He is assigned MOLLUS insignia number 2510. His son, Hamilton Rowan, an officer in the United States Army, is elected as a Second Class Companion of MOLLUS and becomes a First Class Companion upon his father’s death.

Rowan dies at the age of 81 in Washington, D.C. on March 31, 1890.