D. H. Hill, Jr., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 4, North Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[35] flank of this earthwork rested on a morass, and the other on a swamp. Both of these were thought to be impenetrable, but they proved otherwise. Scattered about in these different redoubts, the little Confederate force awaited the coming of Burnside's flotilla. As General Wise was away at Nags Head sick, Colonel Shaw, of the Eighth North Carolina, was in command. He says that his force, exclusive of the infantry detached for the batteries, amounted to 1,434 effectives. This was made up as follows: Eighth North Carolina (568); Thirty-first North Carolina, Col. J. V. Jordan (in part, 456); part of the Forty-sixth and part of the Fifty-ninth Virginia, under Lieut.-Col. F. P. Anderson and two companies of the Seventeenth North Carolina, under Maj. G. H. Hill. Colonel Shaw was entirely without trained artillerymen, and for his 18-pounders he had only 12-pounder ammunition. The Confederate ‘pasteboard fleet,’ seven vessels and eight guns, took position above Fort Bartow and behind some piles that partly obstructed the channel.

On the morning of the 7th, the Federal squadron in imposing array neared the island. ‘By 11 o'clock,’ says General Hawkins,

the first division of army gunboats, under Commodore Hazard, arrived opposite the forts on the west side of Roanoke island and commenced the bombardment in earnest, and at the same time engaged the enemy's fleet. As the navy vessels arrived they went into action, and by half past 11 the whole fleet of gunboats was engaged. The engagement between the heavy guns lasted all day without much damage having been done to either side. At the close the gunners answered each other with about the same spirit displayed at the commencement. The Confederate forts had, however, fared better than their fleet. The latter was protected from an assault on the part of our vessels by a row of piles driven across the navigable part of the channel and by sunken vessels; but, notwithstanding this protection,