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Fort Fisher
On
the peninsula, in those days, there weren't many civilians, mostly
farmers, and almost completely encompassed by pine woods. The
Confederate pilots would climb the tallest trees using ladders, and
look for the nearest blockade runner, come down and meet the ship,
guiding it past the many passive defenses that had been put into the
river to stop any Union ships that would dare to attack the city of
Wilmington and come upon the flanks of the Confederate army. As time
passed, the fort would get more powerful artillery, that came here
from Charleston, and using these formidable guns keep the Union
blockade well offshore, and these ships didn't have the artillery
capable of bombarding the shoreline. In July, 1862, Colonel William
Lamb took over command of the fort, and sometime are getting there,
he voiced his displeasure with the primitive status of the fort.
With the fall of Norfolk, Virginia, the fort's importance increased
because Wilmington would become the main trading port for the
Confederacy, and this area had to be secure. An array of soil-mounts
was constructed to form the Land Face, that spanned the length of
Shepherd Battery to the ocean, with a sea face being built later to
continue the previous mount line; and extended down to an area that
became the Mound Battery. At the intersection of the mounds, a
northeast bastion was constructed, that was 30 feet high, and Mound
Battery became the most important structure of the fort and
constructed during the spring of 1863. Since these fortifications
were built mostly of soil, they could withstand the onslaught of
heavy shelling, and was designed something like the Tower of
Malakoff that was built at Sevastopol, Russia in the Crimean War.
During the work, there were over a thousand soldiers and slaves that
had worked at the location, with over 500 slaves being brought in
from nearby plantations. Many Native Americans, the majority Lumbee
Indians, were also pressed into helping with the improvements of the
fortifications. After all was said and done, Fort Fisher became the
biggest Confederate fort, and in November, 1863, President Jefferson
Davis came for a visit, and by 1864, the entire regiment of the 36th
North Carolina was stationed inside the fort, and in October of that
year, the Buchanan Battery was constructed. The two subsequent
battles that led to the defeat and takeover of the fort is wonderful
reading and should be of great interest to history buffs, since the
battle was the biggest amphibious operation until the Second World
War.
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