808 Norra Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

the Point to the land face of the fort was a mile and a half,
and along this curtain were placed the channel batteries, pro-
tected by traverses, with the necessary bomb-proofs, maga-
zines, etc. The land face of the work extended from the ter-
minus of this sea face west and across the spit or peninsula,
nearly to the river. A sallyport was located at the west end
of the land face, into which from above, a road led into the
fort, there being a slough and bridge near the entrance. From
this sally-port to the river was a breast work, protected by a
palisade, the stakes pierced for infantry fire, sand bags also
being used along this extension. The main land face and
angle at the sea face and for some distance towards Bowles’
Battery, was a powerful earthwork, about sixty feet at the
base and some twenty feet or more wide at the elevation, with
chambers for guns at the proper intervals, protected by im-
mense traverses, with magazines and bomb-proofs, the fort
and batteries having forty-four guns, and two mortars, the
best the Confederacy could afford, some of late English pat-
tern. General Grant, disappointed at the failure of Decem-

ber, now sent General Terry with about 8,500 men, supported
by a formidable fleet with more than 600 heavy guns under
Admiral Porter, to reduce this place and both appeared near
Fort Fisher about 11 or 12 January, 1865.

SECOND ATTACK ON FORT FISHER.

On this being known Company D, of the first battalion,
then in garrison at Fort Caswell, was ordered to Fisher on 13
January, the bombardment beginning on that day. At once
boarding the transport it landed near Battery Buchanan after
dark that night and was ordered by Colonel Lamb to move at
once to the land face to meet an expected assault. It double-
quicked to its position near the west end of the land face, but
the enemy did not then approach.

On the 14th, men of this company under a heavy fire,
manned guns on the land face, unflinching amid the accurate
aim of the monitors and iron-clads. The 15-inch shells
landed often on the guns, knocking off trunnions, breaking
off great pieces of the Columbiad muzzles, wrecking gun car-
riages, and often bespattering the walls of the gun chambers

Ninto Barration. 309

with the blood and brains of the men of the detachments, yet
the gunners coolly adjusted the degrees. The men ohoyed
every order till in turn relieved, often mounting the parapet
amid a storm of exploding shells when necessary to sponge a
gun, the flannel bursting into flame as soon as out of the muz-
zle, and continuing in this way the contest throughout the
day. At night one-half of the picket ordered on the beach on
the land face was composed of men of this company. Ad-
vancing until the enemy’s pickets were discovered they
fought by the light of the enemy’s guns on the line sitet near
midnight, when they were drawn in close to the fort.

On the morning of 15 January, the attack was renewed
with unabated fury and daylight, as near as the writer re-
calls, showed only two guns on the land face in condition for
service, and one of these was manned by detachments from
Company D, and the other by a detachment from the navy.
A line of rifle pits having now been established by the enemy
within range, the men at the guns were shot as they attempted
to serve them, but this fire was returned from the parapets
with effect.

With the exception of some detachments at the guns, which
participated gallantly in the repulse of the naval brigade in
the assault on the land face, Company D was stationed on this
day at a sallyport about midway the land face of the fort,
until between 1 and 2 o’elock p. m., when Colonel Lamb or-
dered the company to the extreme left, with instructions to
keep cover as well as possible under the fort until the enemy,
now apparently massing for an assault, should approach
within the range of musketry, and then, rushing to the pali-
sades, man them and contest their nearer approach. In-
stantly the company cleared the gallery and bomb-proof, the
fleet at this time turning their whole fire on the land face to
cover the assault and drive the men to shelter, Captain Mc-
Cormick moving at the base of the works. All the land face
now looked as if wrapped in flame and smoke—the screaming,
exploding shells tearing the earthwork, making holes in the
traverses, and in all the history of war it is doubtful if a more
infernal fire ever fell upon a fort. The company reaching
the sallyport at the extreme end of the work next the river,