The Burnside Expedition

The Burnside Expedition. . , The road to New Bern began in the summer of 1861, when Confederate privateers successfully marauded merchant ships along the coast of North Carolina. The Federal navy was given the task of silencing these "pirates" by attacking their base of operations at Hatteras Inlet. Here the Confederates had constructed two forts , Hatteras and Clark. The navy's goal was to capture the two forts and sink two ships in the inlet to close the Outer Banks to the Confederate privateers. In late August of 1861, the combined forces of the Federal army and navy, under the command of Brigadier General Benjamin F. Butler and Commodore Silas H. Stringham, had captured the forts after a brief naval bombardment and landing by Butler's troops. After taking possession of the inlet, Butler and Stringham recognized the incredible naval value that the islands of the Outer Banks and their large shallow sounds provided. Not only were the islands a good base of operations for further actions in North Carolina, but they provided protection from the many storms that raged along the Carolina coast. Butler left a force to hold the inlet and went to Washington to discuss the matter with President Lincoln. Lincoln concurred and gave Butler permission to raise a new "coast division" expeditionary force. This proved to be difficult, however, since two other "coast divisions" were already being recruited and outfitted., In September 1861, Major General George B. McClellan, commander of the Federal army, sent orders to his close friend Brigadier General Ambrose E. Burnside to raise one of these coast divisions'. in support of McClellan's upcoming operations in the tidewater region of Virginia. Even, transpired, however, that sent Burnside and his new expeditionary force further south to the coast of North Carolina., Similar to the modern US Marine Corps and Navy Expeditionary Force, the concept of the "coast division" was a joint ground and naval force that operated along the coasts and rivers. Burnside's recruiting plan was to create a division of light \ infantrymen from the New England states who had ', experience with shallow-draft naval war vessels and light naval artillery. These troops would operate in conjunction with a force of supporting naval vessels while making amphibious landings as part of the ground-based actions of the army., [Captions:] , Brigadier General Benjamin F. Butler , The bombardment of Fort Hatteras , August 29, 1861 , Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside