O. Jennings Wise dead – Com. Lynch Drowned – Other Officers Prisoners

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 14.

The Inquirer has a special dispatch about the Burnside expedition, saying that the enemy was pursued for several hours, and that two complete regiments on their way to reinforce the fort were captured.  Every road was lined with the guns, knapsacks and clothing of the wounded, dead and dying.

Gov. Wise’s son was shot through both legs and the longs, and died the following day.  Acting Brigadier-General Hill, and Colonels Shaw, Gordon and Green were captured, with a large number of subordinate officers.

The Federal gunboat Com. Perry [ran] down the rebel flag ship Sea Bird, having on board Com. Lynch, cutting her apart.  Our men boarded her, and during the encounter which ensued a portion of her officers and crew jumped overboard, and others had their brains knocked out with handspikes.

Rebel accounts state that Com. Lynch has not yet been heard from.  He was probably drowned during the fight.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox has also received a private letter, in which it is stated that the number of killed of our navy is about 20, and of the enemy about 30.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Monday Morning, February 17, 1862, p. 1

Official Report of the taking of Roanoke Island

FT. MONROE, February 13.

The gun-boat Stars and Stripes arrived this noon from Burnside’s expedition with a bearer of dispatches for the Government.  They report the rout of the rebels as complete.  Three thousand prisoners were captured, and all their gun-boats burned or captured except two, which escaped in the canal.  The Federal loss in killed is 42, wounded about 140.  Rebels killed about 30 and their wounded less than 100.

The advance from Hatteras took place on Wednesday morning, consisting of about 60 vessels.  The fleet anchored off Stumpy Point that night and the next day proceeded to the entrance of Cotton Sound.  After a reconnoisance the attack commenced.  On Friday morning the Underwriter led on the column.  The rebel fleet was attacked and dispersed in half an hour by the navy, while the remainder attacked the lad batteries.  The fight continued till dark.

During the night ten thousand men were landed, and on Sunday morning 7,000 more.  A masked battery of three guns was soon discovered by skirmishers, and was attacked in front and both flanks.

The 21^st, 25^th and 27^th Mass., the 9^th and 51^st N. Y. and the 10^th Conn. Were particularly engaged.  The 25^th Mass. And the 10^th Conn. suffered most severely.

The fight lasted only two or three hours, when the battery was abandoned.  Our troops pursued, surrounded the rebel camp and took nearly the whole command prisoners.

O. Jennings Wise was shot twice while endeavoring to escape in a bot.  Col. Russell, of the 10^th Conn., was killed at the head of his regiment.  Col. D. Montelle, of the Depennel Zouaves, whose Zouaves were voluntary, was killed.  No other officers were killed above the rank of Lieutenant.  Our total loss in killed and wounded is less than 200, and the number of killed less than 50.

On Sunday P. M. a fleet of fifteen gun-boats started for Elizabeth City.  The place was shelled, and having been evacuated and partially burned by the rebel troops, was occupied.

The Sea Bird, which was the flag ship of Com. Lynch, was run down and boarded, and the gallant Commodore escaped by swimming to shore.

The news from Elizabeth City was received at Roanoke Island on Monday eve.

Gen. Wise was at Nag’s Head and succeeded in escaping to Norfolk.

The rebels made no fight after being driven from their entrenchments, which was done by the Hawkins’ Zouaves and the 21^st Mass.  Young Wise resisted the storming parties till he was wounded and carried off, when his command retreated with the others to the upper part of the island, where they laid down their arms.

Elizabeth City was about half burnt by the rebel soldiers.  The people sent a delegation to Com. Golsborough, asking him to send a force to assist in extinguishing the flames.

Edenton was taken possession of on Wednesday, by Com. Goldsborough, no opposition being offered.

Norfolk and Richmond papers attribute the loss of Roanoke Island to the blundering inefficiency of the navy.  They still persist in asserting that 1000 Federals were killed; they also charged some Roanoke Island farmer with directing and piloting the Yankees to the only point they could effect a landing, the landing being flanked on all sides by an extensive march.

A dispatch from Memphis to Norfolk, admits the Federal flag was cheered on Tennessee River, by people, and assert that the Federals neither seized nor destroyed any private property, not even cotton.

Gov. Letcher issued an order for the formation of home guards, for the defense of Norfolk, Petersburg and Richmond.

Bishop Ames and Hon. H. Fish returned to Baltimore, the rebels refusing to receive them.

The Richmond Dispatch says, our Tennessee exchanges give us gloomy prospects for the future in that part of the Confederacy.  Several leading journals intimate plainly that there is really a threatening state of affairs in East Tennessee, growing out of the idolatrous love of many of those people to the old Union.  The correspondent of the Memphis Avalanche writes that the condition of the interior counties is not improved by the lapse of time.  The people apprehend an immediate advance of the Northern men, and traitors to the south evince their joy.  In every village and neighborhood, the Unionists are making demonstrations.  In many of the Northern counties and even at Memphis there were exhibitions of joy on the arrival of the news at Beach Grove.  Armed bands of Johnson’s and Maynard’s followers are prowling about all directions through the mountains.  In the remote counties in the State men have been shot at night in their own houses, who adhered to the fortunes of the South.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, February 15, 1862, p. 1