FORT FISHER'S FALL

Outnumbered Confederate soldiers inside Fort Fisher were unable to withstand the approach of Union troops by land and the constant Union naval bombardment from the sea.

- Laura Phillips

By the afternoon of January 15, 1865, the Union navy had bombarded Fort Fisher for more than 48 hours. The fort stood on a peninsula at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. It protected the port of Wilmington, North Carolina. Located about 30 miles inland, Wilmington was North Carolina’s largest city. It also was the only port on the Atlantic Ocean that remained under Confederate control. Blockade-runners used it as a base to carry out Southern crops of tobacco and cotton and bring in much-needed supplies for General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

It was the Union’s second attempt to take the fort. The first attack had failed in December 1864. But this time, Union Major General Alfred H. Terry understood the importance of cooperating with the Union Navy. Terry and his naval counterpart, Admiral David Dixon Porter—in command of 58 vessels—made careful plans for the joint attack.

Blockade-runners were small, fast vessels used to evade a blockaded port.