The culmination of the serious losses that had befallen the coast by the operations of General Burnside was the surrender of Fort Macon, on the sand-bar opposite Beaufort. This fort was an "old style, strong, casemated work," mounting about fifty guns.[1] Col. M. J. White
occupied the fort with four companies of the Tenth
North Carolina artillery and one company of the Fortieth. General Burnside sent General Parke with his division to lay siege to the work. After some weeks spent in preparing mortar and Parrott batteries, under protection of the sand hills, General Parke opened fire on the fort with four batteries on the 25th of April. The Federal fleet joined in the fire for an hour or two. By 4 o’clock the combined batteries threw 1,150 shells and shot at the fort, 500 of which took effect,[2] dismounting over half the guns. Colonel White says in his official report: "The attack from the land was kept up with great vigor, the enemy having immense advantage from superior numbers, being able to relieve their men at the guns, while our morning reports showed only 263 men for duty. Our guns were well managed but able to do little damage to water batteries and siege guns, firing through narrow embrasures. At 6:30, finding that our loss had been heavy, and, from the fatigue of our men, being unable to keep up the fire with but two guns, a proposition was made to General Parke for the surrender of the fort. The regimental history of the Tenth regiment declares: "Of the forty-four guns, half were entirely disabled. None on the parapet facing the entrance to the harbor could be brought to bear on the land batteries, nor could
—
- ↑ It is difficult to tell how many guns Macon had; Hawkins says, 64; Burnside, 54; and the Tenth Regiment History, 44.
- ↑ Flagler’s Report.
plished after all the obstacles in our way had been removed. It seems that both parties were badly frightened. The enemy ran like quarter-horses toward Norfolk, and we as fast as our weary legs would carry us toward Roanoke, leaving quite a number of our wounded, and destroyed the bridges behind us." Ibid., 316.
