'Attack Upon Roanoke Island - Landing of the Troops', (1878). The Battle of Roanoke Island, the opening phase of what came to be called the Burnside Expedition, was an amphibious operation of the American Civil War. In February 1862, Union troops commanded by General Ambrose Burnside landed on the island in North Carolina, and captured three forts from the Confederates. From "Our Country: a Household History for All Readers, from the Discovery of America to the Present Time", Volume 3, by Benson J. Lossing. [Johnson & Miles, New York, 1878]