From the Feb. 7th New York Times Opinionator "Lost Again" by Gregory P. Downs.
On february 7, 1862, Union soldiers landed on Roanoke Island, NC where some 300 years earlier the Lost Colony was founded.
In 1862, its importance lay in that it controlled the inner waterways between the Outer Banks and the mainland of the state. The North had captured Hatteras Inlet the year before, but small blockade-runners were still able to sneak in through the other inlets along the Outer Banks and a lively trade was going on. Business was booming in New Bern, Edenton and Elizabeth City. Supplies and munitions were able to reach the important Confederate naval facilities at Norfolk where the dread new ironclad was being built.
Both sides knew the importance of Roanoke Island. Former Virginia governor Henry Wise, now a Confederate general had stationed 3,000 troops on the island, sunk obstructions in the waters around it and had begun fortifying it.
The North sent Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside with 13,000 troops t cooperate with the huge Union fleet in the capture of the island.
The troops and fleet arrived Feb. 6th. The eastern shore of Roanoke was too shallow for naval operations and the west too fortified. An escaped teenage slave named Tom came aboard the Union ships and told where a landing could be obtained south of the Confederate fortifications.
On February 7th, advancing federals found a Confederate battery commanding the only roadway across a swamp and sidestepped it through the water and captured it.
By the 8th, the island was under Union control.
Federal troops found the site of the Lost Colony and started doing sightseeing and so many were taking souvenirs that a guard had to be put upon it.
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