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The War Between the States 383

a sally-port, from which two Napoleons were run out as occasion
required. At the river end of the palisade was a deep and
muddy slough, across which was a bridge, the entrance of the
river road into the fort; commanding this bridge was a Napo-
leon gun. There were three mortars in the rear of the land face.

Tue Sea Face or Fort Fisuer.

The sea face, for one hundred yards from the northwest
bastion, was of the same massive character as the land face.. A
crescent battery intended for four guns joined this, but it was
converted into a hospital bombproof. In the rear a heavy cur-
tain was thrown up to protect the chamber from fragments of
shells. From the bombproof a series of batteries extended for
three-quarters of a mile along the sea, connected by an infantry
curtain. These batteries had heavy traverses, but were not more
than ten or twelve feet high to the top of the parapets, and were
built for ricochet firing. On the line was a bombproof electric
battery connected with a system of submarine torpedoes. Far-
ther along, where the channel ran close to the beach, inside the
bar, a mound battery sixty feet high was erected, with two heavy
guns which had a plunging fire on the channel; this was con-
nected with a battery north of it by a light curtain. Following
the line of the works, it was over one mile from the mound to
the northeast bastion at the angle of the sea and land faces, and
upon this line twenty-four heavy guns were mounted. From the
mound for nearly one mile to the end of Confederate Point, was
a level sand plain scarcely three feet above high tide, and much
of it was submerged during gales. At the point was Battery
Buchanan, four guns, in the shape of an ellipse commanding
New Inlet, its two 11-inch guns covering the approach by land.
An advanced redoubt with a 24-pounder was added after the
attack by the forces on the 25th of December, 1864. A wharf
for large steamers was in close proximity to these works. Bat-
tery Buchanan was a citadel to which an overpowered garrison
might retreat and with proper transportation be safely carried

off at night, and to which reinforcements could be sent under
the cover of darkness.

Tuer Fort Fisuer Fient.

General Whiting, in his official report of the taking of Fort

Fisher on the night of the 15th of January, 1865, after an as-

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