Until the arrival of Colonel William Lamb in July, 1862, Fort Fisher was little more than several sand batteries mounting fewer than two dozen guns. Under Colonel Lamb's direction and design, which was greatly influenced buy the Malakoff Tower (a Crimean War fortification) in Sevastopol, Russia, expansion of the fortress began. By January, 1865, Fort Fisher embraced one mile of sea defense and one-third mile of land defense. More than 500 Negroes, both slave and "free," worked with Confederate soldiers on construction; occasionally, as many as one thousand men were working, although maintaining adequate labor was difficult.
Unlike older fortifications built of brick and mortar, Fort Fisher was made mostly of earth and sand, which was ideal for absorbing the shock of heavy explosives. The sea face, equipped with 22 guns, consisted of a series of twelve foot high larger batteries bounded on the south side by two larger batteries forty-five and sixty feet high. Of the smaller mounds one served as a telegraph office and another was converted into a hospital bombproof. The land face was equipped with 25 guns distributed among its fifteen mounds. Each mound was 32 feet high with interior rooms used as bombproofs or powder magazines and connected by an underground passageway. Extending across the entire land face was a nine foot high palisade fence.
Colonel Lamb recognized the importance of Fort Fisher to the defense system of the Cape Fear, to the security of Wilmington, and to the actual survival of the entire Confederacy. Massive and powerful, Fort Fisher kept Federal blockade ships at a distance from the Cape Fear River, saving Wilmington from attack and insuring relatively safe passage to Confederate naval travel. Wilmington was the last major port open to the Confederacy, and the destination of steamers which smuggled provisions into the southern states and supplied General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. These ships traveled from Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Nova Scotia where southern cotton and tobacco were exchanged for food, clothing, and munitions from British traders.
The Union Army and Navy planned several attacks on Fort Fisher and the port of Wilmington but made no attempt until December 24, 1864. After two days of fighting, with little headway, Union commanders concluded that the Fort was too strong to assault, and withdrew their forces. However, they returned on for a second attempt on January 12, 1865. The fort was bombarded on both land and sea face by Federal ships and assaulted on land face, by more than 8,000 Union infantry. On January 15, after six hours of fierce combat, the fort was captured by the Union (193k).
After the fall of Fort Fisher, captured Confederate soldiers were taken to Union prisons in New York. The Confederate Army evacuated remaining forts in the Cape Fear area, and within weeks Union forces overtook Wilmington. Once Wilmington fell the supply line of the Confederacy was severed, and the Confederate cause was soon lost.
Located on this site are the remains of Fort Fisher with a restored palisade fence (194k). Nearby is a modern visitor center-museum (accessible to the handicapped) containing interpretative exhibits and an audio-visual presentation which relates the story of Fort Fisher. Among the displays are items recovered from sunken blockade-running ships. State headquarters for underwater archaeology and a picnic area are also located here.
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