eee anetans Traore): 1665285. Tur Derence or Fort FISHER 221

An advanced red i
oubt with a 24-pounder wa
4 Ss |
attack by the forces under Gen — Bitles — after the | afternoon were over 900 veteran troops and 450 Junior Re-
fas os Cieile 1664. <A whack ee “a ~~ Admiral Por- serves, reinforced after dark by 60 sailors and marines. As
Ot. " PO e < 2 | d
close proximity to these works. Battery a —_ was in soon as the fire of the fleet ceased, the parapets were not only
adel to which an overpowered garriso of} a’ cl manned, but half the garrison was stationed outside the
proper transportation be saf i Ps cess tae ee ve work behind the palisades. There was no fear of an ‘assault
: arrie night ae : :
which re-enforcements could be sent under cover “3 4 and to in front; what most disturbed the defenders was a possible
Thus Fort Fisher, being desioned : hon er or d arkness. . landing from boats between the Mound Battery and Battery
? g designed to withstand the heaviest | Buchanan. Admiral Porter was as much to blame as Gen-

bombard 7 ti * Gs
ee ment, was extremely difficult to defend against as- cok ete tie the repulse
sault after its guns were destroyed. The soldiers in the gun- Se ee

chambers could not see the appr in fr
font: aad ta. donel-aceaal pproach in front for a hundred missioned officers of the North Carolina reserves and other prisoners.
? pel assailants they had to leave all cover and From them I learned that Kirkland’s and Hagood’s brigades of Hoke’s
stand upon the open parapet. division had left the front of the Army of the James, near Richmond,
and were then within two miles of the rear of my forces, and their skir-

As : Serine : \
a defense against infantry there was a system of sub- mishers were then actually engaged, and the remainder of Hoke’s divis-
i ion had come the night before to Wilmingtion, and were then on the

terra torpedoes extending ;
ending ' : :
g across the peninsula, five to six march, if they had not already arrived. General Weitzel reported to
gement, and in that of the expe-

hundred feet from the land face, and so disconnected that the me that to assault the work, in his jud
rienced officers of his command who had been on the skirmish-line,

explosion of one would } nae nah
not affect the others ; inside the torpe- i with any prospect of success, was impossible. This opinion coincided

does, about fifty feet from the berme of the work, extending I with my own, and much as I regretted the necessity of abandoning the
| attempt, yet the path of duty was plain. Not so strong a work as Fort

from river bank t
oO sea-shore, w . / } §
, was a heavy palisade of shar- Fisher had been taken by assault during the war, and I had to guide me
the experience of Port Hudson, with its slaughtered thousands in the re-

 

 

RE LTT ETI IEE ee STEP MOR EE

 

pened logs nine feet high pierced for musketry, and so laid ;
pulsed assault, and the double ‘assault of Fort Wagner, where thousands

“out as to have an enfilading |
waa-e voloulh auneas ading fire on the center, where there 5 were sacrificed in an attempt to take a work less strong than Fisher.
oubt, guarding a sally-port, from which two Napo- after it had been subjected to a more continued and fully as severe fire,
‘And in neither of the instances I have mentioned had the assaulting

leons were run i :
re out, as occasi ‘i f var ;
: sion required. At the river end force in its rear, as I had, an army of the enemy larger than itself. I

therefore ordered that no assault should be made, and that the troops

of the palisade was a deep and muddy slough, across which ee Poe ea
should re-embark.”—Eprrors.

was a bridge, the entrance of the ri into th
g e river road into the fort;
?
* General Butler was blamed by contemporaneous writers for not cap-

commanding this bridge was a N ap leon un, There were by wor ks For this criticisn
¢ Ne 0
gs i tu ing the 2

three mortars in r : 1
ee f in rear of the land face. evening of the 25th, before waiting for official reports, he listened to
os * as after a careful reconnoissance on 25 December, camp gossip and begee to ie gt cece : nae ee
4 aving draw r 4 lv : ier : “General Weitzel advanced his skirmish- ine within fifty yards of the

a : ee drawn our fire by an advance of his skirmish fort, while the garrison was kept in their bombproofs by the fire of the
ine to within 75 yards of the fort, that General Godfre navy, and so closely that three or four men of the picket-line ventured
y upon the parapet and through the sally-port of the work, capturing a

Weitzel, findi EES S Sag
, finding the works substantially uninjured by the ex- horse, which they brought off, killing the orderly, who was the bearer
of a dispatch from the chief of artillery of General Whiting, to bring a

plosion of the powder ship and the two days’ terri | w i

. VB: errifie bom- hs | i
arc Bee, ’ : light batte thin the fort, and also brought away from the parapet the
bardment of Porter’s great armada, reported to Butler that b flag of the fort.” e an :

the fort could ne Ti > ass * ia nt : } i
ot be carried by assault.* In the works on that ne ve cml Se ee Grant in bis "Me-

moirs,” though General Butler corrected the error in his official report

*General B. F. Butler in his report of the o i j : j i
: ih sgrapett perations of his troops £3 J 1865. No Federal soldier entered Fort Fisher Christmas
Gr part <“Brev adiar. s , ps, says rc) anuary, 5. No Federal solc L
pall oth gall adver’ aac ion tle os : ioe Curtis, who deserves well day, except as a prisoner. The courier was sent out of the fort without
a few hundred yards of Fort "Fisher. pani nae Begg etn emag neon . my knowledge. and was killed and his pe ne rig ba Yo pa in
i : , alf-moon batter my’s lines. The flag captured was a small company Hag, place on the

and its men, who were taken off by the boats of thenavy. Inthe vichenk extreme left of the oe and which was carried away “— thrown off rem
It was during a terrible

time the remainder of Ames's division had captured 218 men and 10 com- ee | parapet by an enfilading shot from the navy.