Transcript (excerpt):
Page 1, Lower Half
General Burnside’s Report,
Headquarters Department of North Carolina
Newbern, March 16, 1862
General L. Thomas, Adjutant General United States Army:-
General – I have the honor to report that, after embarking the troops with which I intended to attack Newbern, in conjunction with the naval force, on the morning of the 11th, a rendezvous was made at Hatteras Inlet. Flag Officer Goldsborough having been ordered to Hampton Roads, the naval fleet was left in command of Commodore Rowan. Early on the morning of the 12th the entire force started for Newbern, and that night anchored off the mouth of Slocum’s creek some eighteen miles from Newbern, where I had decided to make a landing. The landing commenced by seven o’clock the next morning, under cover of the naval fleet, and was affected with the greatest enthusiasm by the troops. Many, too impatient for the boats, leaped into the water, and waded waist deep to the short, and then, after a toilsome march through the mud, the head of the column marched within a mile and a half of the enemy’s stronghold, at eight P.M., a distance of twelve miles from the point of landing, where we bivouacked for the night, the rear of the column coming up with the boat howitzers about three o’clock next morning, the detention being caused by the shocking condition of the roads, consequent upon the heavy rain that had fallen during that day and the whole of the night, the men often wading knee deep in mud, and requiring a whole regiment to drag the eight pieces which had been landed from the navy and our own vessels.
Citation: New York Herald, 20 March 1862. Gift of Steven and Susan Raab. AN .N56792