North Carolina's Civil War stories were as diverse as its landscape. In northeastern North Carolina, including Camden County, the Outer Banks, and the coastal rivers, fighting came early as Union forces occupied the region. Naval battles, blockade running, Federal raids, and the Confederacy's struggle to supply its armies shaped the area. Manmade waterways such as the Dismal Swamp Canal and the Albemarle & Chesapeake Canal linked rivers and sounds to cities in eastern North Carolina and Virginia. Union occupation began in 1862, and Federal forces gradually extended control westward through campaigns and raids up the rivers. Confederate guerillas attacked Union transportation and communication lines along the rivers and canals. Federal punitive expeditions drove the guerillas into the swamps, freed thousands of slaves, and cut supply lines from Wilmington and other coastal ports. These cat-and-mouse struggles continued until the end of the war.