Qualla: Siege of Fort Macon

Siege of Fort Macon: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (Book authors). Signature appears to be Francis H. Schell., Public domain. Colonel Moses J. White's reply read like a man with no good options trying to pretend otherwise: I have the honor to decline evacuating Fort Macon. The Union general who had asked the question, John G. Parke, had already cut White's communications, taken Beaufort, Newport, Morehead City, and Carolina City, and was moving siege artillery onto Bogue Banks. The fort was a generation out of date. Its walls were brick. Its defenders had three days' ammunition. The siege would last thirty-four days, but the actual fight took one.

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (Book authors). Signature appears to be Francis H. Schell. | Public domain

Siege of Fort Macon: An Out-of-Date Fort

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit American Battlefield Protection Program, Public domain. Fort Macon was built between 1826 and 1834, one of the Third System coastal forts the United States constructed after the War of 1812. It guarded the channel into Beaufort and Morehead City from the eastern end of Bogue Banks, designed to repel wooden warships whose smoothbore ca...

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Image: American Battlefield Protection Program | Public domain

Siege of Fort Macon: Burnside's March

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (Book authors). Signature appears to be Francis H. Schell., Public domain. Brigadier General Ambrose E. Burnside's North Carolina Expedition launched in January 1862. Roanoke Island fell in February. Elizabeth City and New Bern followed. By March 14, Burnside controlled most of the eastern North Carolina sounds, but he could not use the ports at Beaufor...

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (Book authors). Signature appears to be Francis H. Schell. | Public domain

Siege of Fort Macon: One Day of Bombardment

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, Public domain. Parke established four batteries hidden behind the sand dunes: four 8-inch mortars at 1,200 yards, four 10-inch mortars at 1,600 yards, three 30-pounder Parrott rifles at 1,300 yards, and a 12-pounder boat howitzer at 1,200 yards. They opened fire at dawn on April 25, 1862. The C...

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Image: self | Public domain

Siege of Fort Macon: Ten Dead

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit self, Public domain. At 4:30 in the afternoon, Colonel White raised the white flag. The fort's magazine was about to be breached. Further resistance meant his men dying for nothing. Parke at first demanded unconditional surrender, but White referred to the parole terms Burnside had offered on March 2...

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Image: self | Public domain