Abraham Lincoln : a history : the full and authorized record of his private life and public career . rly submerged,and there was constant danger that they might beseriously damaged by the severe storms frequent onthat coast. Officers of good judgment reported thatthey formed no suitable base for operations into theinterior, and recommended the capture and occu-pation of Roanoke Island. Its strategic value wasso evident that it needed little urging upon the at-tention of the Government. It would form a safeand useful base of operations; it would renderblockade-running in that locality well-nigh
Abraham Lincoln : a history : the full and authorized record of his private life and public career . rly submerged,and there was constant danger that they might beseriously damaged by the severe storms frequent onthat coast. Officers of good judgment reported thatthey formed no suitable base for operations into theinterior, and recommended the capture and occu-pation of Roanoke Island. Its strategic value wasso evident that it needed little urging upon the at-tention of the Government. It would form a safeand useful base of operations; it would renderblockade-running in that locality well-nigh impos-sible ; more important than all, the complete occu-pation of the interior coast would open a practicableback door to Richmond. Roanoke Island, wrotethe local rebel commander, is the key of one-third™per, °f North Carolina, and whose occupancy by the i86?.ot w8r. enemy would enable him to reach the great railroadp. 682. from Richmond to New Orleans. Chance favored the gradual growth of an expe-dition for this work. During the summer andautumn of 1861, while McClellan was so tediously mx. REAR-ADMIRAL GOLDSBOROUGH. EOANOKE ISLAND 241 organizing his great army, refusing to allow detach- chap. and postponing all movements, the PotomacRiver fell into a condition of quasi blockade fromrebel batteries hastily established at eligible points,and which, though from time to time shelled outand driven away, persistently reappeared to en-danger navigation. For several months, saysthe report of the Secretary of the Navy, the com-merce on this important avenue to the nationalcapital was almost entirely suspended, though atno time was the passage of our armed naval vesselsprevented. General McClellan felt unwilling orunable to relieve this stress by a forward move-ment. Yet not entirely insensible to such a militarydisgrace almost at the tent-doors of the army, hetook refuge in a half-way measure suggested byG-eneral Ambrose E. Burnside, his classmate andintimate friend, a
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