Rowan started from
Hatteras Inlet with a flotilla of thirteen vessels, and army
transports bearing three thousand men. The long column steamed down
the placid waters of Pamlico Sound, and, turning into the Neuse
River, anchored about fifteen miles below the city. Although the night
before the battle, and within sight of the white steeples of the
menaced city, all was quiet and peaceful. The banks of the broad
stream were densely wooded, and from them could be heard at times the
cry of the whip-poor-will, or the hoot of the night-owl. The vessels
were anchored far out in the middle of the stream, so as to avoid the
deadly bullets of any lurking sharp-shooters. The lookouts kept a
close watch for floating torpedoes; while the sailors off duty spun
their yarns in the forecastle, and bet pipes and tobacco on the result
of the coming battle. The jolly tars of the Burnside expedition had
hardly yet learned that war was a serious matter. They had met with
but little serious resistance, had captured powerful forts without
losing a man, had chased and destroyed the Confederate fleet without
any serious damage to their own, and felt, accordingly, that war was a
game in which it was their part always to win, and the part of the
enemy to run away. Certainly the fight at Newbern did nothing to
dispel this idea.

When morning broke, the shrill piping of the boatswain's whistle
brought the crew to their places on deck. Breakfast was served, and
leisurely eaten; for it is one of the established theories of the
navy, that sailors can't fight on empty stomachs. Breakfast over, the
work of landing the troops was begun. The point chosen was a broad
beach fringed with woods near the anchorage of the vessels. Before
landing the troops, the ships threw a few shells into the woods, to
make certain that they concealed no ambuscade, as in the disastrous
affair at Matthias Point. After two dozen shells had burst, mowing
down trees, and driving out frightened animals in plenty, but no
sharp-shooters, the long-boats put off from the transports bearing the
soldiers for the land attack. As soon as six or seven hundred were
landed, they formed in column, and moved rapidly up the beach. The
others followed as rapidly as they could be put on shore. The gunboats
steamed slowly up the river, keeping abreast of the troops, and
throwing shells into the woods ahead of the attacking column. Had any
Confederates prepared to resist the march, they must have b