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Fort Fisher History
| Capture of Fort Fisher (Painting) |
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| (Kurz and Allison, 1890) |
Several forts dotted the North
Carolina coast during the Civil War but none was more important than Fort
Fisher, which gained the nickname “Gibraltar
of the South.” Geography determined the fortification’s key role in the war. Fort
Fisher, named for Capt. Charles Fisher, a casualty of First Manassas, was built on
a peninsula named Federal Point at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, eighteen miles south of Wilmington. It served as guard for the port
of Wilmington, and was the most powerful seacoast fort in the South.
Construction started in April 1861, and was finished in 1865 under the supervision of Col. William
Lamb. When complete the fort was the biggest earthen fort of this time, extending across the peninsula. Protecting the fort
and men were 44 guns and an underground bomb shelter. More than 500 African Americans, both slave and free, worked with Confederate
soldiers on construction; occasionally as many as 1,000 were working, although maintaining adequate labor was difficult.
Fort Fisher was the last remaining lifeline in the closing months of the Civil War.
Blockade runners took advantage of the Cape Fear River to route supplies to troops inland.
On December 23-24, 1864, the Union Navy bombarded the fort which soon was refreshed with 600 more men from Wilmington, increasing the number to around 2,000 men. The Union Navy attacked again on January
13, 1865. The attack lasted two days and, on January 15, Union forces on land and sea occupied the site. Wounded in the attack
was Maj. Gen. W. H. C. Whiting, the engineer responsible for designing the Cape
Fear defense system. The fall of Fort Fisher robbed Robert E. Lee’s army
of their last connection to the outside.
Col. William Lamb would spend the rest of his life to
his death in 1909 attempting to have Fort Fisher
preserved but to no avail. In the 1920s a marker was placed on the site, and in the 1930s efforts were made to save the fort
from erosion. During World War II, a military post was built over the existing fort and, during the 1950s, as the centennial
of the Civil War approached, work would begin to make Fort Fisher a North Carolina Historic Site. Today only a few of the mounds remain, since
much of the fort has been eroded by the ocean.
References: Chris E. Fonvielle, The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope (1997); Mark
A. Moore, The Wilmington Campaign and the Battles for Fort Fisher (1999); Rod Gragg, Confederate Goliath (1991);
Richard N. Current, ed., Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993); William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina
(2006).
Recommended
Reading: Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort
Fisher. From Publishers Weekly: Late in the Civil War, Wilmington, N.C., was the sole remaining seaport supplying Lee's army at Petersburg,
Va., with rations and munitions. In this dramatic account, Gragg describes the
two-phase campaign by which Union forces captured the fort that guarded Wilmington and the subsequent occupation of the city
itself--a victory that virtually doomed the Confederacy. In the initial phase in December 1864, General Ben Butler and Admiral
David Porter directed an unsuccessful amphibious assault against Fort
Fisher that included the war's heaviest artillery bombardment. Continued
below…
The second
try in January '65 brought General Alfred Terry's 9000-man army against 1500 ill-equipped defenders, climaxing in a bloody
hand-to-hand struggle inside the bastion and an overwhelming Union victory. Although historians tend to downplay the event,
it was nevertheless as strategically decisive as the earlier fall of either Vicksburg or Atlanta. Gragg
has done a fine job in restoring this important campaign to public attention. Includes numerous photos.
Recommended
Reading: The Wilmington Campaign and the Battle for Fort Fisher, by Mark A. Moore. Description:
Full campaign and battle history of the largest combined operation in U.S.
military history prior to World War II. By late 1864, Wilmington
was the last major Confederate blockade-running seaport open to the outside world. The final battle for the port city's protector--Fort Fisher--culminated
in the largest naval bombardment of the American Civil War, and one of the worst hand-to-hand engagements in four years of
bloody fighting. Continued below…
Copious illustrations,
including 54 original maps drawn by the author. Fresh new analysis on the fall of Fort Fisher, with a fascinating comparison
to Russian defenses at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. “A tour de force. Moore's Fort Fisher-Wilmington Campaign is the best publication of this
character that I have seen in more than 50 years.” -- Edwin C. Bearss, Chief Historian Emeritus, National Park Service
Recommended
Reading: Rebel Gibraltar: Fort Fisher and Wilmington, C.S.A. Description: Even before the rest of North Carolina joined her sister states in secession,
the people of the Lower Cape Fear were filled with enthusiasm for the Southern Cause - so much so that they actually seized
Forts Johnston and Caswell, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, weeks before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. When
the state finally did secede, Wilmington became the most important
port city of the Confederacy, keeping Robert E. Lee supplied with the munitions and supplies he needed to fight the war against
the North. Continued below…
Dedicated soldiers
like William Lamb and W.H.C. Whiting turned the sandy beaches of southern New Hanover and Brunswick Counties into a series
of fortresses that kept the Union
navy at bay for four years. The mighty Fort Fisher
and a series of smaller forts offered safe haven for daring blockade runners that brought in the Confederacy's much-needed
supplies. In the process, they turned the quiet port of Wilmington into a boomtown. In this book that was fifteen years in the making, James
L. Walker, Jr. has chronicled the story of the Lower Cape Fear and the forts and men that guarded it during America's bloodiest conflict, from the early days of the war to the fall of Wilmington in February 1865.
Recommended
Reading: The Wilmington
Campaign: Last Departing Rays of Hope. Description: While prior books on the battle to capture Wilmington,
North Carolina, have focused solely on the epic struggles for Fort Fisher, in many respects this was just
the beginning of the campaign. In addition to complete coverage (with significant new information) of both battles for Fort Fisher, "The Wilmington Campaign" includes the first
detailed examination of the attack and defense of Fort Anderson. It also features blow-by-blow accounts of the defense of the Sugar Loaf Line
and of the operations of Federal warships on the Cape Fear River. This masterpiece of military
history proves yet again that there is still much to be learned about the American Civil War. Continued below…
"The Wilmington
Campaign is a splendid achievement. This gripping chronicle of the five-weeks' campaign up the Cape Fear River adds a crucial dimension
to our understanding of the Confederacy's collapse." -James McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom
Recommended
Reading: Hurricane of Fire: The Union Assault on Fort Fisher
(Hardcover). Review: In December 1864 and January 1865, Federal forces launched the greatest amphibious assault the world
had yet seen on the Confederate stronghold of Fort Fisher,
near Wilmington, North Carolina.
This was the last seaport available to the South--all of the others had been effectively shut down by the Union's
tight naval blockade. The initial attack was a disaster; Fort
Fisher, built mainly out of beach sand, appeared almost impregnable against
a heavy naval bombardment. When troops finally landed, they were quickly repelled. A second attempt succeeded and arguably
helped deliver one of the death blows to a quickly fading Confederacy. Hurricane of Fire is a work of original scholarship,
ably complementing Rod Gragg's Confederate Goliath, and the first book to take a full account of the navy's important supporting
role in the assault.
Recommended
Reading: Gray Phantoms of the Cape Fear
: Running the Civil War Blockade. Description:
After the elimination of Charleston in 1863 as a viable entry port for running the blockade,
Wilmington, North Carolina,
became the major source of external supply for the Confederacy during the Civil War. The story of blockade running on the
Cape Fear River was one of the most important factors determining the fate of the South.
With detailed and thought-provoking research, author Dawson Carr takes a comprehensive look at the men, their ships, their
cargoes, and their voyages. Continued below…
In mid-1863,
the small city of Wilmington,
North Carolina, literally found itself facing a difficult
task: it had to supply Robert E. Lee's army if the South was to continue the Civil War. Guns, ammunition, clothing, and food
had to be brought into the Confederacy from Europe, and Wilmington
was the last open port. Knowing this, the Union amassed a formidable blockading force off storied Cape Fear. What followed was a contest unique
in the annals of warfare. The blockade runners went unarmed, lest their crews be tried as pirates if captured. Neither did
the Union fleet wish to sink the runners, as rich prizes were the reward for captured cargoes. The battle was thus one of
wits and stealth more than blood and glory. As the Union naval presence grew stronger, the new breed of blockade runners got
faster, quieter, lower to the water, and altogether more ghostly and their crews more daring and resourceful. Today, the remains
of nearly three dozen runners lie beneath the waters of Cape
Fear, their exact whereabouts known to only a few fishermen and boaters.
Built for a special mission at a brief moment in time, they faded into history after the war. There had never been ships like
the blockade runners, and their kind will never be seen again. Gray Phantoms of the Cape
Fear tells the story of their captains, their crews, their cargoes, their
opponents, and their many unbelievable escapes. Rare photos and maps. “This book is nothing shy of a must read.”
Recommended Reading: Masters of the Shoals: Tales of the Cape Fear Pilots Who Ran the Union Blockade. Description: Lavishly illustrated stories of daring harbor pilots who risked their lives
for the Confederacy. Following the Union's blockade of the South's waterways, the survival
of the Confederacy depended on a handful of heroes-daring harbor pilots and ship captains-who would risk their lives and cargo
to outrun Union ships and guns. Their tales of high adventure and master seamanship became legendary. Masters of the Shoals
brings to life these brave pilots of Cape Fear
who saved the South from gradual starvation. Continued below…
REVIEWS:
"A valuable and meticulous accounting of one chapter of the South's failing struggle against the Union." -- Washington Times 03/06/04
"An interesting picture of a little appreciated band of professionals...Well documented...an easy read." -- Civil War
News June 2004
"An interesting picture of a little appreciated band of professionals...Will be of special interest to Civil War naval
enthusiasts." -- Civil War News May 2004
"Offers an original view of a vital but little-known aspect of blockade running." -- Military Images 03/01/04
"Surveys the whole history of the hardy seamen who guided ships around the Cape
Fear's treacherous shoals." -- Wilmington
Star-News 10/26/03
"The story [McNeil] writes is as personal as a family memoir, as authoritative and enthusiastic as the best history."
-- The Advocate 11/15/03
“Outstanding depictions of seamen courage and tenacity...Heroic, stirring, and gripping stories of the men that
dared to confront the might and power of the US Navy.” – americancivilwarhistory.org
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