In the winter of 1861, Union armies had failed to win any significant victories over their Confederate counterparts. The Northern populace, overwhelmed by the bloodshed, questioned whether the costs of the war were too high. President Lincoln despondently wondered if he was going to lose the Union. As a result, tension was incredibly high when Union hero Ambrose Burnside embarked for coastal North Carolina. With the eyes of the nation and world on little Roanoke Island in the Outer Banks, Burnside began his amphibious assault on the beaches and earned a victory that shifted control of Southern waters. Join author and historian Michael Zatarga as he traces the story of the crucial fight on Roanoke Island.

Even though the Civil War on Hatteras Island ended with the capture of Hatteras by Union forces, the Outer Banks role in the war did not end there. Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside continued his expedition into Roanoake Island in 1862, along with flag officer L. J. Goldsborough, Colonel Rush Hawkins of the Ninth New York Zouves, and many others, causing great upheaval and dissonance to the simple lives of the islanders. As with Aerial Perspective's other books, the pictures can almost tell the story on their own, but the rich historical detail in the text is absolutely fascinating. Following the tradition of using Edwin Graves Champney's sketches in Aerial Perspective's prior Civil War book, this book features drawings by his cousin, James Wells Champney, who was also stationed at Fort Macom in the Outer Banks with the Union forces. In addition, journal entries and personal correspondence of soldiers such as Charles F. Johnson and Capt. William Chase (of the 4th Rhode Island) and the development of freedom's colony allow the reader a truly personal look into the soldiers' lives during these trying times.

The ports at Beaufort, Wilmington, New Bern and Ocracoke, part of the Outer Banks (a chain of barrier islands that sweeps down the North Carolina coast from the Virginia Capes to Oregon Inlet), were early involved in the chaos that grew into the Civil War. Though smaller than their counterparts in South Carolina, the small river ports were useful for the import of war materiel and the export of cash producing crops, through their use of the inlets that led from sounds to sea. Written from official records, contemporary newspaper accounts, personal journals of the soldiers, and many unpublished manuscripts and memoirs, this is a full accounting of the Civil War along the North Carolina coast.

In February 1862, General Ambrose E. Burnside led Union forces to victory at the Battle of Roanoke Island. As word spread that the Union army had established a foothold in eastern North Carolina, slaves from the surrounding area streamed across Federal lines seeking freedom. By early 1863, nearly 1,000 refugees had gathered on Roanoke Island, working together to create a thriving community that included a school and several churches. As the settlement expanded, the Reverend Horace James, an army chaplain from Massachusetts, was appointed to oversee the establishment of a freedmen's colony there. James and his missionary assistants sought to instill evangelical fervor and northern republican values in the colonists, who numbered nearly 3,500 by 1865, through a plan that included education, small-scale land ownership, and a system of wage labor. Time Full of Trial tells the story of the Roanoke Island freedmen's colony from its contraband-camp beginnings to the conflict over land ownership that led to its demise in 1867. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Patricia Click traces the struggles and successes of this long-overlooked yet significant attempt at building what the Reverend James hoped would be the model for "a new social order" in the postwar South.

This collection of primary source material chronicles the Civil War experiences of North Carolinians from the secession crisis to the Confederate surrender at Bennett Place. In contrast to other works on the Civil War, this book focuses not on military ev

Eleven battles and seventy-three skirmishes were fought in North Carolina during the Civil War. Although the number of men involved in many of these engagements was comparatively small, the campaigns and battles themselves were crucial in the grand strategy of the conflict and involved some of the most famous generals of the war. John Barrett presents the complete story of military engagements across the state, including the classical pitched battle of Bentonville, the siege of Fort Fisher, the amphibious campaigns on the coast, and cavalry sweeps such as Stoneman's raid. From and through North Carolina, men and supplies went to Lee's army in Virginia, making the Tar Heel state critical to Lee's ability to remain in the field during the closing months of the war, when the Union had cut off the West and Gulf South. This dependence upon North Carolina led to Stoneman's cavalry raid and Sherman's march through the state in 1865, the latter of which brought the horrors of total war and eventual defeat.

The Outer Banks have long been of interest to geologists, historians, linguists, sportsmen, and beachcombers. This long series of low, narrow, sandy islands stretches along the North Carolina coast for more than 175 miles. Here on Roanoke Island in the 1580s, the first English colony in the New World was established. It vanished soon after, becoming the famous "lost colony." At Ocracoke, in 1718, the pirate Blackbeard was killed; at Hatteras Inlet and Roanoke Island important Civil War battles were fought; at Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills the Wright brothers experimented with gliders and in 1903 made their epic flight. The Graveyard of the Atlantic, scene of countless shipwrecks, lies all along the ever-shifting shores of the Banks. This is the fascinating story of the Banks and the Bankers; of whalers, stockmen, lifesavers, wreckers, boatmen, and fishermen; of the constantly changing inlets famous for channel bass fishing; and of the once thriving Diamond City that disappeared completely in a three-year period.