American Civil War
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Second Fort Fisher
Battle · Naval & Coastal
Second Battle of Fort Fisher
January 13–15, 1865 · Cape Fear River, North Carolina
Narrative
Commanders
At a glance
Outcome
1
The last port
The Last Door
Wilmington is the Confederacy’s last working seaport, and Fort Fisher guards its river mouth. Butler (North) botches the first attack with a powder ship; Grant relieves him and sends Terry (North) back.
2
January 13
The Greatest Armada
Porter (North) returns with 58 ships, the largest U.S. fleet yet assembled. Bragg (South) keeps Hoke’s (South) division idle a few miles off while the garrison is left to hold alone.
3
January 13–15
Pounding the Sand Flat
Three days of careful, aimed naval fire dismount the fort’s guns one by one, blinding the land face and grinding the garrison down before a single soldier charges.
4
Afternoon, January 15
The Sailors’ Charge
Some 2,000 sailors and marines storm the sea-face corner with cutlasses and revolvers and are slaughtered, but the doomed rush pulls the defenders to the wrong side of the fort.
5
Night, January 15
Traverse by Traverse
The army goes over the land face and fights mound by mound into the dark. Whiting and Lamb (South) both fall wounded; the fort surrenders near ten o’clock, and the last door shuts.
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