484 FURTHER DESIGNS AGAINST FORT FISHER. CHAPTER X VIII. CAPTURE OF FORT FISHER, WILMINGTON, AND GOLDSBORO', - SHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS.-STONEMAN'S LAST RAID. 1864. 1865. ENERAL GRANT was greatly disappointed by the re. sult of the expedition against Fort Fisher, and in his General Report of the Operations of the Army," * July 22, he severely censured General Butler, and charged him with "direct violation of the instructions given," by the "re-embarkation of the troops and return of the expedition." In those instructions General Grant had said: "Should such landing [on the beach Dec. 6, above the entrance to the Cape Fear] be effected whilst the enemy still holds Fort Fisher and the batteries guarding the entrance to the river, then the troops should intrench themselves, and, by co-operating with the navy, effect the reduction and capture of those places." Instead of doing so, Butler re-embarked his troops, after the reconnoissance to the front of Fort Fisher. He claimed, in justification, that the conditions precedent to intrenching were lacking, in that he had not effected a landing, as only twenty-two hundred of his six thousand five hundred men had reached the shore, and without a single gun, when the sea ran so high that no more guns or men could be landed, and that provisions could reach the shore only by being headed up in casks, and sent on rafts. He also said that the navy had nearly exhausted its ammunition, and could not be expected to co-operate with the troops in further assault until sup plied; and that he had positive information that Confederate troops, larger in number than the whole military force of the expedition, were nigh at hand. At the request of General Grant, General Butler was relieved, and General E. O. C. Ord was assigned to the command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. On being informed that the fleet had not left the vicinity of Fort Fisher, General Grant wrote to Admiral Porter, asking him to remain, • Dec. 30. and promising to send a force immediately, to make another attempt to capture the Confederate defenses at the mouth of the Cape Fear. He selected for the enterprise the same troops led by Weitzel, with the addition of a thin brigade of fourteen hundred men, and two batteries.1 This force, numbering about eight thousand men, was placed under the com 1 The troops consisted of 3,300 picked men from the Second Division of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps, under General Adelbert Ames; the same number from the Third Division of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps, under General Charles J. Paine; 1,400 men from the First Division of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps, under Colonel J. C. Abbott, Seventh New Hampshire; Sixteenth New York Independent Battery, with four 8-inch guns, and a light battery of the Third Regular Artillery, with six light 12-pounders. SECOND EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER. 485 and of General Alfred H. Terry, with instructions to proceed in transports om Fortress Monroe, as speedily as possible, to the Cape Fear River, and port the arrival to Admiral Porter. To Lieutenant-Colonel Comstock, ho accompanied the former expedition, was assigned the position of ief engineer of this. The general instructions did not differ essentially om those given to General Butler. In them, Terry was informed that a ege train would be at his disposal at Fortress Monroe, if he should require to consist, as he was told by the Lieutenant-General, of twenty 30-pounder arrott guns, four 100-pounder Parrotts, and twenty Cohorn mortars, with a fficient number of artillerists and engineers. General Sheridan was directed send a division to Fortress Monroe, to follow, in case of need. The new expedition left Hampton Roads on the 6th of January," and on * 1865. Jan. 18. he 8th rendezvoused off Beaufort, North Carolina, where Porter as supplying his vessels with coal and ammunition. Rough eather kept all the vessels there until the 12th, when they went down the past, the war-vessels in three lines, accompanied by the transports, and ppeared off Fort Fisher that evening. In the same order the avy took position the next morning, and at eight o'clock nearly wo hundred boats, besides steam tugs, began the landing of the troops, nder cover of the fire of the fleet, a part of which had already attacked 'ort Fisher. At three o'clock in the afternoon eight thousand troops were n the shore, their pickets exchanging shots with an outpost of Hoke's diviion, which was still there. • January. Terry first wisely provided against an attack in the rear, from the direcion of Wilmington, by casting up intrenchments across the peninsula, and Thus also securing its free use to Masonboro' Inlet, where, if necessary, troops nd supplies might be landed in still water. This was done a short distance bove the head of Myrtle Sound, and about four miles from Fort Fisher. The first line was completed at nine o'clock that evening; another was made a mile nearer the fort, and still another within about two miles of the works. At the latter, on the morning of the 14th, the troops vere in a defensible position, behind strong breastworks, extendng from the Cape Fear River to the sea, and partially covered by abatis. This being accomplished without serious difficulty, the landing of the ghter guns was commenced, and was completed that evening. Before morning they were all in battery, mostly near the Cape Fear, where the Confederates, if they should attack, would be the least exposed to the fire of he, fleet. Thus a firm footing was gained on Federal Point, near Fort Fisher; and it was made more secure by the seizure of a small, unfinished utwork in front of the west end of the land face of that fortification, by Curtis's brigade of Ames's division, which was thrown forward for the purose. Whilst making that movement, the brigade captured a small steamer oming down the river with shells and forage for the garrison. The successful movement, thus far, against the fort, planned by General Ferry, partook of all the elements of a siege, without some of its important perations on his part. He landed far up the beach, and made approaches without the necessity of zigzag intrenchments to protect his heavy guns, For none were needed, the batteries for that work being afloat in Porter's leet. 486 BOMBARDMENT OF FORT FISHER. A careful reconnoissance determined Terry to make a grand assault the next morning, and arrangements were accordingly made with Porter, whose fleet had already been preparing the way for success. On the morning of the 13th, it had taken its station in three lines, as we have observed. The New Ironsides, Commodore Radford, Jan. 15, 1865. leading the monitors Saugus, Canonicus, Monadnoc, and Mahopac, moved toward the fort and received its fire unnoticed until they reached a position 1 In this plan, the general form of Fort Fisher, described in note 4, page 478, is indicated. Fort Buchanan on the extreme end of Federal Point, was almost due west from Mound Battery, and about once and a half the distance from the latter, that Mound Battery was from the northeast salient of Fort Fisher. FORT FISHER TO BE ASSAULTED. 487 rithin a thousand yards of it, when they opened their batteries, and a sharp ght ensued. Then Porter ordered his wooden vessels to engage in the conict. Line No. 1, in the plan on page 486, was led by the Brooklyn, Captain Alden, and line No. 2 was led by the Colorado, Commodore Thatcher. The ombardment was continuous, but not rapid, until dark, to the severe hurt of he armament of the fort, when the wooden vessels fell back to their anchorge. But the iron-clads fired slowly throughout the night, by which the garrion was worried and fatigued. During the landing of the army ordnance on the 4th, and the successful movements of Terry on the peninsula, all the vessels arrying 11-inch guns, led by the Brooklyn, joined the monitors in bombardng Fort Fisher, damaging it severely. "By sunset," says Porter, in his eport, "the fort was reduced to a pulp; every gun was silenced by being njured or covered up with earth, so that they could not work."" In the arrangement for the general attack by land and water, the fleet was to first concentrate its fire on the land face of Fort Fisher, for the purpose of disabling its guns and destroying the palisades upon its wings and front, when the army should make the assault at three o'clock in the afternoon. All night the monitors pounded the fort, and allowed the garrison no rest, nor opportunity to repair damages; and at eight o'clock in the morning," the entire naval force, excepting a division left to aid in the defense of Terry's line across the peninsula, moved up to the attack, "and a fire, magnificent alike for its power and accuracy, was opened."3 Meanwhile, fourteen hundred marines and six hundred sailors, armed with revolvers, cutlasses and carbines, were detached from the fleet to assist the land troops in the work of assault; and, digging rifle-trenches in the sand. under cover of the fire of the ships, they reached a point within two hundred yards of the sea-front of the fort, where they lay awaiting the order for attack. Jan. 15, 1865. Ames's division had been selected for the assault. Paine was placed in command of the defensive line, having with him Abbott's brigade in addition to his own division. Ames's first brigade (N. M. Curtis's) was already at the outwork captured the day before, and in trenches close around it. His other two brigades (G. A. Pennybacker's and L. Bell's) were moved, at noon, to within supporting distance of him. At two o'clock, preparations for the assault were commenced. Sixty sharp-shooters from the Thirteenth Indiana, armed with the Spencer repeating carbine, and forty others, volunteers from Curtis's brigade, the whole under the command of Lieutenant Lent, of the Thirteenth Indiana, were thrown forward, at a run, to within less than two hundred yards of the work. They were provided with shovels, and soon dug pits for shelter, and commenced firing at the parapet, which, as the firing of the fleet at this point had ceased, was instantly manned, and a severe storm opened upon the assailants from musketry and cannon. 4 The siege train was there, but was not landed. "There was great difference in the position of the ships in the two attacks, and in the nature and effects of the fire. The first was a general bombardment, not calculated to effect particular damage; the second firing had for its definite object the destruction of the land defenses, and the ships were placed accordingly to destroy them by enfilade, and by direct fire. On that front, and the northeast salient, the whole enormous fire was poured without intermission, until the slope of the northeast salient was practicable for assault. Not a gun remained in position on the approaches; the whole palisade swept away; the mines [or torpedoes] cut off, rendering them useless, and the men unable to stand to the parapets during the fire."-General Whiting's Ansicer to General Butler's 22d Question. Terry's Report. 3 General Terry's Report, January 25, 1865. 488 ASSAULT ON FORT FISHER. As soon as the sharp-shooters were in position, the fleet changed the direction of its fire from the land face and the palisades of the fort, to its center and right, and Curtis's brigade moved forward at the double-quick into line less than five hundred yards from the works, and there laid down. The other two brigades were moved forward, Pennybacker's to the outwork left by Curtis, and Bell's to a point two hundred yards in the rear of it. Perceiving a good cover on the reverse of a slope, fifty yards in the rear of the sharp-shooters, Curtis moved his men to it, where they instantly covered themselves in trenches. At the same time, Pennybacker followed Curtis and occupied the ground he had just left, and Bell advanced to the outwork. It was now about half-past three o'clock in the afternoon. Every thing was in readiness for the assault. The signal was given, when Curtis's brigade sprang from its cover and dashed forward in line, its left exposed to a severe enfilading fire. It obliqued to the right, so as to envelop the left of the land-face of the fort. Preparations had been made for destroying the palisades with powder1 and axes. But the fleet had done the work effectually. The axmen, however, accompanied Curtis's men. The palisades were soon passed, and a lodgment was made on the parapet, not far from the river. At the same time the sailors and marines, led by Fleet-Captain K. R. Breese, eager to be the first to enter the fort, advanced with great gallantry up the beach, and attacked the northeast bastion. There they were exposed to a murderous fire, and were unable to scale the parapet. After heavy loss of officers and men, they were withdrawn. But they had done valuable work, for they had occupied a greater portion of the garrison, who thought theirs the main attack, and so helped Curtis to gain his advantage. With this assault commenced the terrible struggle. Up to this time the National loss had been trifling, for the navy had kept the garrison quiet. Now it was compelled to cease firing at that part of the fort, for its shells would be as hurtful to friends as foes. Instantly the garrison sprang to its guns, and musketeers swarmed upon the parapet. But Curtis held his ground until Pennybacker, sent by Ames, came to his support. The latter advanced rapidly to Curtis's right, drove the Confederates from the strong and almost unharmed palisades, extending from the west end of the land The powder was carried in bags, with fuses attached. 2 This is a view of the interior of Fort Fisher at the point where Curtis's brigade made a lodgment on the parapet, as it appeared when the writer sketched it late in March, 1866, The timber-work shows the general line of the top of the fort, above which the immense traverses of sand, for the protection of the cannon, were made. The Cape Fear River, with a part of the palisades is seen on the left. |