Fort Fisher - the South's lifeline

	On the Cape Fear River, about thirty miles from the East coast of North Carolina rests the beautiful city of Wilmington. When the civil strife of four years was nearing its close, when the enemies to the Union of States, sullen and vindictive, were retreating before an invading army, Wilmington, nestling behind Fort Fisher, one of the most formidable fortresses ever contrived, was shaken by some of the most terrific bombarding that ever took place on earth.       "Then thronged the citizens with terror dumb        Or Whispering with white lips,        'The foe! they come! they come!" Until the last few months of the Civil War, Fort Fisher kept North Carolina's port of Wilmington open to blockade-runners supplying necessary goods to Confederate armies inland. By 1865, the supply line through Wilmington was the last remaining supply route open to Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. When Fort Fisher fell after a massive Federal amphibious assault on January 15, 1865, its defeat helped seal the fate of the Confederacy. Early in the American Civil War, the Confederacy took control of a neck of land in southern North Carolina near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and constructed what was to become the largest and most important earthwork fortification in the South. Two major battles were fought there, and many Union soldiers received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their gallant participation in that fighting. Today only a few of the mounds remain, since much of the fort has been eroded by the ocean. Gibraltar of the South Until the arrival of Col. 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, expansion of the fortress began. By January 1865, Fort Fisher embraced one mile of sea defense and one-third of a mile of land defense. More than five hundred African Americans, 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 12-foot-high batteries bounded on the south end by two larger batteries 45 and 60 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 15 mounds. Each mound was 32 feet high with interior rooms used as bombproofs or powder magazines and connected by underground passageways. Extending in front of 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 survival of the entire Confederacy. Massive and powerful, Fort Fisher kept Federal blockading ships at a distance from the Cape Fear River, protecting Wilmington from attack and ensuring relatively safe passage for Confederate naval travel. Wilmington was the last major port open to the Confederacy and the destination of steamers called blockade-runners, 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. Attacks on Fort Fisher 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 for a second attempt on January 12, 1865. For two and one-half days, Federal ships bombarded the fort on both land and sea face. On the fifteenth, more than 3,300 Union infantry, including the 27th U.S. Colored Troops, assaulted the land face. After several hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat, Federal troops captured the fort that night. The Confederate army evacuated their remaining forts in the Cape Fear area, and within weeks Union forces overran Wilmington. Once Wilmington fell, the supply line of the Confederacy was severed, and the Civil War was soon over. Fort Fisher Historic Site

Running The Blockade

With Commander Kell I went from Southampton to Liverpool, where we were joined by several other officers who were going to make the attempt to run the blockade.

After a couple of days' stay in Halifax we took passage on a small British steamer called the Alpha which plied on the line between Halifax, Bermuda, and St. Thomas, West Indies. She was crowded with passengers, but they were not disposed to be friendly with us.

In the early mornings we would gather on the little poop deck and pass away the time until the gong sounded for breakfast, when we would fall in behind Commander Kell, according to rank, and in Indian file walk into the saloon and take our seats.

Commander Kell was a most commanding figure, being six feet three or four inches in height. When he sailed from New Orleans in the Sumter three years previously, he had determined to let his beard grow until he saw his wife again. It now reached to his waist and flowed over his breast like a waterfall - it was very red. He allowed only his intimates to see it, however, as he kept it plaited and stuck down his shirt collar. Ordinarily his beard looked to be about three inches long with the ends all turned in under his chin.

One morning we were seated as usual on the poop when Commander Kell produced from the inner recesses of his shirt front the wonderful beard and proceeded to comb it out. Before he had finished the intricate operation the gong sounded, and with his habitual consideration for others, he said that he would not keep us from our breakfasts while he put up his extraordinary hirsute adornment, and he led the way to the saloon with his great red beard flowing over his manly chest.

As he entered the door the passengers were all seated at the breakfast tables, and to our great consternation some idiot screamed out, "The pirates are going to take us!"

Then followed a scene I shall never forget. Men dove under the tables and the women fell on their knees and begged for mercy. As for us - we were simply scared into speechlessness.

It was Commander Kell's beard that had caused the fright - the passengers jumping to the conclusion that there were other pirates secreted on the ship, and that the time to take her and make them walk the plank had arrived. The captain of the Alpha rushed aft to find out what had happened, and even he did not recognize Commander Kell at first. Of course there was a hearty laugh when the mystery of the beard was explained, and we were all much better friends for the rest of the voyage.

At St. George, Bermuda, our party was divided and took passage on several of the blockade-runners then lying in the harbor. Lieutenants Campbell, Ingraham, King, and myself (the midshipman) went on board the Lillian commanded by as big a braggart and blowhard as ever commanded a ship.

It was in the month of July, 1864, and by this time the blockade of the Southern coast was so complete that to get into a Southern port it was necessary to elude the United States war-vessels three separate times on each trip. Around the Bermuda Islands cruisers hovered to catch their prey when the blockade-runner was only a few miles from the neutral port, either coming or going. About fifty miles off the Southern coast other cruisers awaited them, and of course the channels leading into the Southern harbors were closely guarded. We passed out of the narrow and tortuous channel, which connects the harbor of St. George and the sea, in daylight, and then lingered near the shore until night shrouded our movements when we started at full speed for Wilmington, North Carolina, and soon ran into some very foul weather.

The Lillian was a very small paddlewheel steamer whose deck was not more than three or four feet above the water line, and she drew only between seven and eight feet of water. In heavy seas she labored so that she spent about as much time under the water as she did on top of it - reminding one of the sailor's commentary on the verse of the Bible about "Those who go down to the sea in ships see the wonders of the Lord": "That may be true about full-rigged ships," said the sailor: "but I can tell the fellow who wrote it that them as go to sea in barks, brigs, schooners, or other small craft, they see hell!"

We floundered across the Gulf Stream, and on the afternoon of the night we expected to make our dash through the blockading fleet, and while we were still distant some fifty miles from the Cape Fear River, a big, bark-rigged, steam sloop-of-war, which we afterwards learned was the U.S.S. Shenandoah, caught sight of us and gave chase.

The captain, when in his cups, would swear by all the gods of the sea that the little Lillian could run seventeen knots an hour, but we were to witness the phenomenon of a heavy man-of-war, that could not make more than nine or ten knots at most, gain rapidly on us, as our fool captain persisted in steering a course which permitted of the warship carrying all of her immense spread of sail. Our captain went below and stowed several big drinks of brandy under his vest, and then, coming on deck, in a spirit of braggadocio, hoisted the Confederate flag. Mr. Campbell ordered us to go below and put on our uniforms and side arms, as we wished to be captured, if captured we had to be, as officers of the Confederate Navy.

Returning to the quarter-deck we awaited developments. The warship still steadily gained. Within an hour from the time she sighted us she fired a shot. We naval officers knew that she was only trying to get the range, as we saw the projectile fall short several hundred yards from us, but our captain thought that was the best she could do, and with his habitual swagger he mounted to the little bridge which reached from one little paddlebox to the other, and from that point of vantage he looked down on us and in the most dramatic manner said, "I want you naval officers to know that I am captain of her as long as a plank will float!" Just then the Shenandoah, having got the range, sent a screaming rifled projectile through both paddleboxes, the shot passing only a foot or two under the bridge on which the captain was standing. With a yell of dismay he threw up his hands and came scampering down the ladder, screaming, "Haul that flag down. I will not have any more lives sacrificed!"

Nothing besides the paddleboxes had as yet been touched unless we except the captain's yellow streak. Lieutenant Campbell walked to the taffrail, a distance of some ten feet from where he had been standing, and took up a position alongside the little flagstaff from which the Confederate colors were fluttering. Laying his hand on the flag halyards he quietly said: "Captain, if you want to give up this boat, turn her over to me. I will not allow you to surrender her. These officers are branded as pirates, and according to President Lincoln's proclamation may be hung if captured."

Just then the man-of-war yawed and let fly her whole broadside, cutting the Lillian up considerably. The captain looked dazed for a moment, but was brought out of his mental stupor by a shot from a rifled gun which grazed the top of one of the boilers letting the steam out with a roar. The engine-room force rushed on deck and gathered around us. The captain bolted for the booby hatch leading down into the cabin, stopping only long enough to say: "I told the agent in Bermuda how it would be if he forced me to take a lot of pirates on board. If you are going to take my ship away from me, take her!" - and disappeared below. Mr. Campbell, as cool as though nothing extraordinary was taking place, turned to us and said, "Kill the first man who touches those flag halyards."

The chief engineer, a game little fellow, informed Mr. Campbell that the boilers could be disconnected from each other, a precaution against just such an accident as had happened, and that the boat, with the immense pressure of steam she was carrying, would run until the steam from the injured boiler cooled off sufficiently to allow the stokers to return to their duties. He added that he had been a prisoner once in Fort Lafayette and had no desire to return there. The crew gallantly cheered his remarks.

All this time the Shenandoah was yawing first to starboard and then to port, apparently so certain that she had us that she was amusing her crew at target practice. Mr. Campbell went into the pilot house and took command of the Lillian. The first order he gave changed our course so that the man-of-war had to take in her sails, and after that we appeared to be holding our own in the contest of speed. Shots continued to fly over and around us, occasionally one striking the frail sides causing the splinters to fly as it passed through. The shells were bursting and their fragments whistling all around us. We were dripping wet from the spray thrown up by projectiles which hit the water alongside.

In the midst of it all Mr. Campbell ordered me to go down into the cabin and report to him what the captain was doing. I reported: "Captain in his berth dead drunk with an empty bottle of brandy beside him."

All this time Lieutenant Campbell was edging the Lillian in toward the land which we sighted between sundown and dark, and how we did pray that night would come soon. With our light draft we continued the "edging-in" maneuvre until the heavy man-of-war, drawing some eighteen or twenty feet of water, had to change her course for fear of striking the bottom. She hauled to the southward with the object of heading us off from Wilmington, from which port we were far to the northward by this time. We had to change our course to the southward, giving the broadside of the Shenandoah a fine target as we steamed in parallel lines down the coast, the Lillian being so close into the beach that she was rolling on the curlers of the outer line of surf.

Night at last came to our relief, - or at least we thought it did, - when to our amazement two columns of flame about thirty feet high shot up out of our little smokestacks! This gave the warship a fine target to exercise her crew in night practice, of which she at once took advantage. Our engineer explained that to get more steam he had caused half a dozen bottles of turpentine to be thrown into the furnaces. The beacon soon expended its energy, however, and without further molestation we continued on our way to Wilmington.

We had hopes of reaching the bar before daylight, and thus elude the vigilance of the blockading fleet, but luck and the speed of the Lillian were against us. Day broke when we were still a couple of miles away and the fleet at once saw us and opened fire. We had no choice but to go on, as the last few shovelfuls of coal on board were then being tossed into the furnaces. Fortunately none of the shots touched our remaining boiler or machinery. There was one small gunboat right in our path, inside of the bar, and very close to Fort Fisher. The people in the fort and on the gunboat must have been asleep. Lieutenant Campbell ordered the man at the wheel to steer for her, saying that she was so near the fort that she would not dare fire, as Fort Fisher would blow her out of the water if she did. He was right - for when she saw us coming she slipped her cable and scampered off without firing a shot, and a few minutes afterwards we dropped our anchor in safety under the sheltering guns of the famous fortress.

The rattling of the chain cable, when the anchor was dropped, had awakened our captain from his drunken sleep, and he shortly appeared on deck looking very sheepish, but the arrival of several officers from the fort soon caused him to resume his swaggering air. Resuming his role as captain he received them at the gangway, and the first one who stepped on to the deck seized his hand and exclaimed, "Well done, captain! that was the most daring dash through the blockade we have yet witnessed!" The captain modestly replied, "Oh, it is nothing; we have to take some chances in our business, you know!" And Lieutenant Campbell, standing a few feet away, never said a word.

The captain invited the army officers (but none of us) into his cabin and opened champagne. Champagne at six o'clock in the morning had no terrors for a Confederate soldier. This same captain, after the damages to the Lillian had been repaired at Wilmington, loaded her with cotton, and started out again. He stopped and surrendered her when the first shot was fired and before any damage had been done.

From a blockade-runner the Lillian was converted into a United States blockader.

Documenting The American South - 'Recollections of a Rebel Reefer' by James Morris Morgan, 1917

The River Defenses - Fort Fisher State Historic Site

"That Wilmington has not hitherto been attacked is owing to the fact that to overcome her natural and artificial defense would require the withdrawal of too large a force from operations against points which they deem more important to us. If that cause should ever cease to exist we may expect their fleets and armies at the mouth of the Cape Fear." - Jefferson Davis, Confederate president, December 15, 1864

The Cape Fear River's formidable defensive works were the crowning addition to the ideal geographical location Wilmington enjoyed as a haven for blockade-runners. The fall of Norfolk, Virginia, in May 1862, rendered Wilmington the closest active seaport to the Eastern Theater battlefront, and as the town's importance grew so did its network of defenses. The efforts of Confederate soldiers, together with forced labor from Indians and numerous slaves impressed from neighboring plantations, produced a vast array of earthen forts and batteries to protect the South's most important seaport. After Charleston, South Carolina, it was the most heavily fortified city on the Atlantic seaboard.

In addition to the inner and outer defenses of the town itself, four large river batteries dominated a bluff about three miles below Wilmington. From north to south, these were Forts Davis, Lee, Campbell and Meares. These batteries commanded the river approach to Wilmington, while sunken cheveaux-de-frise and other obstructions blocked the narrow channel below Eagles Island. Blockade-runner pilots were given instructions on how to safely navigate these dangerous obstacles.

Guarding the western land approaches 15 miles south of Wilmington was Fort Anderson. Originally named Fort St. Philip, this massive collection of earthen batteries was erected by Confederate engineers in 1862, amid the decaying ruins of a colonial settlement known as Brunswick Town. In the days before the American Revolution, Brunswick had served as Great Britain's main port of entry into North Carolina, and it was the British who burned the little town in 1776. Fort Anderson's largest batteries, mounting nine heavy cannon, dominated the low bluffs on the west bank of the Cape Fear, where the navigation channel would bring approaching enemy vessels directly under its guns. A series of aquatic mines known as "torpedoes" further obstructed the river channel here, while a low sand curtain stretched westward from the main batteries for nearly a mile to Orton Pond. Though Fort Anderson weighed in as the largest interior structure in the Cape Fear defensive network, its weaknesses would be quickly exploited by invading Union troops in February 1865.

Several miles below Fort Anderson, at the mouth of the Cape Fear, stood the small and rustic village of Smithville (present-day Southport). Having neither railroads nor major highways, Smithville lacked the necessary infrastructure to sustain itself as a viable port town. It was, however, an important stop for outbound blockade-runners. At anchor in the harbor at Smithville, the heavily laden steamers could easily view the Federal blockading forces guarding both Old Inlet and New Inlet. The runners used this vantage point to assess the chances of a successful breakthrough, and to choose which inlet from which to run the gauntlet. Protecting the harbor at Smithville was Fort Pender, a small four-gun earthwork that the Confederates had erected over the existing structure of colonial Fort Johnston.

Guardians of the Estuary

That there were two entrances into the Cape Fear River was a source of major frustration for the Federal blockaders. Stemming the flow of contraband shipping was a difficult task made worse by an uncertainty as to which inlet would be chosen at any given time by a blockade-runner. The overwhelming success of running the blockade at Cape Fear was due in no small part to two shallow inlets heavily fortified against the threat of naval or amphibious assault.

Old Inlet, the main river entrance and known as the Western Bar, was well guarded from both east and west. The defenses at Oak Island were anchored by Fort Caswell and Fort Campbell, with the tiny, single-gun Battery Shaw located midway between the two. Fort Caswell was an old masonry structure built between 1826 and 1838 by U.S. army engineers. Forts Caswell and Johnston were seized from Federal authorities at the outbreak of the war. As they had with Fort Johnston, Confederate troops strengthened Fort Caswell and brought in more heavy seacoast artillery pieces.

Situated at the tip of Bald Head Point on Smith's Island, Fort Holmes dominated Old Inlet from the east. This large earthwork fortification was begun in September 1863, and remained a work in progress for the remainder of its brief existence. Conforming to the southern and western shores of the island, its combination of sand curtains and gun emplacements stretched for one-and-a-half miles.

East of the Cape Fear River, on a narrow peninsula known as Federal Point, lay the key to Wilmington's defense — the behemoth Fort Fisher, which protected New Inlet. Fisher was constructed much like the other large forts in the system, but on a much more grand scale. At the tip of Federal point was Battery Buchanan, which commanded both the inlet and the river behind Fort Fisher.

This elaborate system of protective installations drew praise from all who viewed it, and Confederate authorities were banking on the impregnability of Fort Fisher to sustain Wilmington in its vital role as "lifeline" to the Confederate war effort.

NC Archives & History Historic Sites

Guarding the Cape Fear River, Fort Caswell

Fort Caswell is located on Oak Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River (from 1526 until 1662 the river was recorded on the maps as the River Jordan). It is bounded on the south by the Atlantic Ocean and on the north by the Elizabeth River.

The original fortification, much of which still stands, is the brick structure near the end of the island, overlooking the mouth of the Cape Fear River. This part of Fort Caswell was under construction from 1826 until 1836. The remainder of the fort, seven long cement batteries, along with barracks and officer’s quarters, a hospital/morgue, bakery, horse barn, firehouse & prison, were built around the turn of the century.

This area was an important settlement and attracted everyone from international travelers to pirates. Smith Island, now named Bald Head which forms the cape, was once one of the main pirates' refuges, as was Smithville, now named Southport, and, of course, Oak Island. Notorious pirates, Steed Bonnett, Richard Worley, Mary Ann Blithe, and Blackbeard (Edward Teach) frequented these waters, hiding out in the bays.

Because of the lack of adequate defenses in this area, in 1825 Congress authorized the construction of a fort on Oak Island. The fort was an outstanding engineering accomplishment, one of the strongest in the world. It was a pentagonal structure with a two-story citadel and surrounded by a dry moat and a wet moat. It was named in 1833 for the first Governor of NC, elected by the General Assembly, and Revolutionary hero, Richard Caswell.

During the Civil War, 1861-1865, many soldiers died here from yellow fever, smallpox, and other diseases. However, there was never a life lost to enemy fire at Ft. Caswell, even though the fort changed hands four times during the War.

Fort Caswell remained in ruins after the War Between the States. It was not until April 14, 1896, when the U.S. began to be more involved in world affairs, that money was appropriated to reconstruct the fort. By 1916 Fort Caswell was again one of the most important military post on the East Coast. It was the Headquarters of the Cape Fear Coastal Defenses and was manned by three companies of Coast Artillery Corps under the command of Col. Charles A. Bennett. The armament consisted of mortars, direct and rapid-fire guns and a mine defense. The fort was used as an Army training camp in World War I.

After World War I, the world was thought to be at peace for good and in 1923 the Coast Artillery abandoned Fort Caswell. One reason for its abandonment was its isolation. Until 1928, there was no road to Oak Island. The only means of approach was by water.

During World War II, Fort Caswell served as an army base and submarine lookout post. Once more the fort helped protect the North Carolina coast and the port of Wilmington during a military crises.

Today, the N.C. Baptist Assembly at Fort Caswell is a religious retreat and conference center and is opened year round, with the exception of Christmas through New Year’s Day.

During the Persian Gulf War, again it played a vital part in the defense of our country. We housed 165 military personnel who worked at a nearby ocean terminal loading ships going to the Gulf. After the war, we housed military personnel while they unloaded ships. The same was true during the Haitian war.

Fort Caswell - North Carolina Baptist Assembly