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 The Battle of Newbem, N. 0., March 14, 1862 
 by Lieut. F. W. Browne 
 
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The Battle of Newbern, K C, March 14, 1862. 
 
 By LIEUT. F. W. BROWNE. 
 
 THE morning of March 13, 1862, dawning upon a 
 sky heavily overclouded with fog and a drizzling 
 rain, found the fleet of the Burnside expedition to 
 North Carolina lying at anchor at the mouth of the 
 Neuse River, and, as soon as it was light enough to 
 see, the entire fleet started up the river, the naval 
 division, of course, in the advance. About ten o'clock 
 in the morning the navy found the enemy's position, 
 on the right bank of the river, to be so heavily forti- 
 fied that it was unable to make any further headway, 
 and so the land forces were at once disembarked. 
 This was done by the light-draft steamers running in 
 shore until they grounded, when the men on board 
 jumped overboard and floundered ashore. From the 
 larger craft the men were sent ashore in whale-boats, 
 but before any went ashore, some of the naval vessels 
 shelled the woods at the point of disembarking. The 
 force landing consisted of the three brigades of Foster, 
 Reno and Parke, all under Burnside, and so hurriedly 
 was the landing made, and so few were the facilities 
 for getting ashore, that the entire force was totally 
 without wagons, ambulances, or anything on wheels, 
 until after the battle of the succeeding day, except 
 two, or perhaps three, small boat howitzers on 
 wrought-iron carriages, which were dragged by hand, 
 
 (30) 
 
THE BATTLE OF NEWBEBN, N. O. 31 
 
 and every round of ammunition for which was car- 
 ried by hand over the most execrable of roads, for the 
 battle of the next day; and the same of all hospital 
 and food supplies. 
 
 The force, being on shore, at once took up its 
 line of march for Newbern, and about 2 p. m. came 
 upon the enemy's first line of defense — abandoned. 
 Some of the men, remarking its strength, suggested 
 that the enemy must have a strong place to fall back 
 upon, a surmise which was abundantly verified the 
 next day. Marching until about 9 p.m., the regi- 
 ments simply filed to the right and left into the 
 swamp, and bivouacked for the night as best they 
 could in the rain. Early the next morning the men 
 were astir, and soon the order came to advance, and 
 the regiment to which the writer belonged had gone 
 about a quarter of a mile when I saw, at the side of 
 the road, Generals Foster and Burnside, with a few 
 of their staffs, and a young man in citizen's clothes, 
 slender and dark-complexioned, evidently a native, 
 who was being subjected to a rather stern and severe 
 cross-examination. I heard Foster say to him : " You 
 say that the enemy's line extends from the railroad 
 to the river? " and he, pale as the white horse he sat 
 on, answered faintly in the affirmative. Whereupon 
 General Burnside said: "You have betrayed us." 
 By this time I had passed out of hearing, but what I 
 had heard was calculated to make a raw recruit open 
 his eyes. 
 
 Immediately the head of the regiment was turned 
 to the left from the main road into a small cart-path, 
 and the regiment had just about drawn its entire 
 
32 G. A. B. WAR PAPERS. 
 
 length into said cart-path, and off of the main road, 
 when we received a volley from the right and front, 
 of artillery and musketry, at close range and of 
 deadly character. It killed our lieutenant-colonel, 
 Merritt ; carried away my captain's leg, and killed 
 and wounded a good many of the men ; and the 
 battle of JSTewbern had opened. The command was< 
 given on the right by file into line, and the men began 
 firing as soon as they came into line. We continued 
 firing until our ammunition was exhausted, when we 
 were ordered to fix bayonets, fall back ten paces and 
 lie down, and the attempt was made to bring the 
 Eleventh Connecticut Regiment by the left flank in 
 front of us, which was an abject failure, as the regi- 
 ment went all to pieces under the enemy's fire. This 
 regiment afterwards, on other fields, more especially 
 at the stone bridge at Antietam, won glory and honor, 
 but I venture to say the survivors do not " point with 
 pride " to the battle of Newbern. 
 
 About this time the Twenty-first Massachusetts 
 charged the enemy's line at the point where the rail- 
 road crossed the line of the enemy's works, and suc- 
 ceeded in getting in, but were promptly thrown out 
 again by a countercharge of the enemy. Soon after, 
 the order was given to charge at the point where the 
 pike crossed the line of the enemy's works, and it 
 was made by the regiments at hand, led by the 
 Twenty-fifth Massachusetts. This got in and stayed 
 there, and then was revealed the point of weakness 
 in the enemy's engineering, for although their lines 
 were very strong to the front, they were all open to 
 the rear, with no inclosed works or traverses; and 
 
THE BATTLE OF NEWBEBN, N. G. 33 
 
 so, when we were once inside, we took everything in 
 reverse, and swept the enemy from their works to the 
 right and left at once. Some of the water batteries, 
 which had kept back the navy, were iron-clad toward 
 the river, but had no defense to the rear, and we soon 
 silenced their heavy guns. The battle on our part of 
 the field was soon closed, but for twenty minutes at 
 least the long roll of Reno's musketry arose from the 
 swamps beyond the railroad, where the enemy were 
 making stubborn resistance to his advance, in igno- 
 rance of what had befallen their comrades near the 
 river. We had captured an entire battery of twelve- 
 pounder brass Napoleons at the pike where we charged, 
 and also, of course, all the heavy guns in the river 
 batteries. 
 
 ^The enemy having disappeared, we took up our 
 line of march for Newbern, arriving about an hour 
 later on the south bank of the Trent River, opposite 
 the town, which at that time was a sight to behold, 
 the enemy, in his retreat, having fired the railroad 
 bridge, steamboats, mills, warehouses full of cotton, 
 rosin and turpentine, the dockyards, etc. ; and the 
 flames and smoke were going straight up to the 
 heavens. We found a small boat, and about ten of 
 us got in and rowed over and landed at the wharf at 
 the foot of Craven street, and all that evening and the 
 succeeding night, and part of the next day, were 
 searching around the town for our regiment ; indeed, 
 we did not succeed in finding it until it was pointed 
 out to us by the provost marshal. 
 
 The next morning after the fight, a small squad 
 of Confederate cavalry, bearing a flag of truce, came 
 
 3 
 
34 O. A. R. WAR PAPERS. 
 
 slowly down the pike to the town, turned into the 
 main street, and passed on' down until it finally drew 
 up of its own accord before the headquarters of 
 General Burnside, no one having even taken the 
 trouble to ask what it wanted or where it was going. 
 While General Burnside was considering the message 
 it brought, and having an answer prepared, there was 
 a good deal of lively talk between the crowd of our 
 boys, who gathered around, and the Johnnies. The 
 Rebel lieutenant in command was a smart, snappy 
 little fellow, and did not seem much impressed with 
 our way of doing guard and out-post duty, for, before 
 leaving, he confided to us his purpose to take ten men 
 the next night and come in and capture the whole 
 outfit. 
 
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