Much of coastal North Carolina fell to Union forces in 1862, and for the duration of the Civil War Northern troops kept a sizable presence in the area. The peculiar geography of the Outer Banks and the sounds region, a damper to antebellum trade, proved indefensible for the outnumbered and poorly equipped Confederates. Under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, a Rhode Islander, Union forces swept across the region, winning one victory after another. After Confederate Forts Hatteras and Clark were overrun in August 1861, Burnside won approval in October for an expedition meant to divert Confederates from tidewater Virginia and disrupt inland supply lines. He assembled a 78-vessel fleet under joint command with Adm. Louis Goldsborough, and by February 1, 1862, the last troop transport had entered Pamlico Sound. Targeting Roanoke Island, Burnside chose Ashby’s Harbor for the assault after acting on a tip from an escaped slave. On February 7 more than 7,500 Union troops landed, and the next day Confederates under Brig. Gen. Henry Wise withdrew under fire to the island’s north end as Federal vessels shelled positions in support of the land attack; Col. Henry M. Shaw then surrendered 2,488 men. It was the Union’s first sizable victory in ten months, and Burnside briefly became a national hero. Within weeks, Burnside’s lieutenants, Brig. Gens. John G. Foster, Jesse L. Reno, and John G. Parke, extended Union control into the waterways feeding the sounds: Elizabeth City was seized on February 10, Edenton fell two days later, Winton was burned on February 20, and gunboats took Washington on March 20. The single Union defeat came on April 19 at South Mills, where Confederates repelled Reno’s men and foiled their attempt to demolish the Dismal Swamp Canal locks. The next target was New Bern, the state’s second largest city. On March 12 Burnside and 11,000 troops anchored south of the city at Slocum’s Creek, facing fortifications along the Neuse River and 4,000 untested Confederates led by Brig. Gen. Lawrence O’B. Branch. The Federals went ashore on March 13 and marched north the next day along the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad. Assisted by fire from the flotilla, Union troops broke the center of the Confederate line in a four-hour battle that left 90 Union and 68 Confederate soldiers dead. After a full-scale retreat across the Trent River, New Bern was occupied, though many residents had fled in anticipation of the invasion. The next objective was Fort Macon, where Parke organized the assault and marched his men along the rail line from New Bern to Morehead City. Col. Moses J. White defended the fort with 54 cannon. Federals laid siege in late March and moved their artillery to within 1,500 yards of the walls. Crowds in Morehead City and Beaufort watched the shelling on April 25, and a white flag appeared late that day; surrender was arranged on April 26. Control of the deepwater harbor at Beaufort spared the Federals from relying on the treacherous inlet at Hatteras. In July, on orders from President Abraham Lincoln, Burnside moved most of his troops to Virginia to assist in a planned assault on Richmond. He had hoped to rally Union sympathizers within North Carolina and undermine support for the war effort, but that aim went unrealized. Instead, the expedition spurred Confederate recruiting and strengthened the determination of North Carolina’s political and military leaders to assemble an effective fighting force.