On March 13, 1862, Union Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside prepared to capture New Bern after seizing Roanoke Island in February. Confederate Gen. Lawrence O’B. Branch defended the city in a line of fortifications several miles down the Neuse River, but by late in the morning of March 14, Burnside’s overwhelming force had breached the line and the Confederates retreated to Kinston. Eleven thousand Federal troops were about to descend on New Bern with a large fleet of United States Navy gunboats sailing up the river in support. On the nearby banks of both the Trent and Neuse Rivers, the retreating Confederates set fire to warehouses filled with cotton bales, military supplies, and thousands of barrels of pine tar and turpentine, and they also burned the railroad bridge across the Trent River to delay the approaching Union army. In sharp contrast to the serene beauty of today’s Union Point Park, huge clouds of billowing black smoke and flames poured out of the wooden warehouses as Federal gunboats charged upriver at flank speed, their coal-fired steam engines spewing black smoke and their heavy guns blazing as they bombarded New Bern. During the next 24 hours, stray soldiers, sailors, and a few residents looted and vandalized New Bern until Burnside’s troops restored order. Soon thereafter, New Bern was transformed into a fortified city and remained under Union control for the duration of the war.