THE DEFENSE OF FORT FISHER.

643

At the land-face of Fort Fisher, five miles fromthe intrenched camp, the peninsula was abouthalf a mile wide. This face commenced about ahundred feet from the river with a half bastion,and extended with a heavy curtain to a full bastionon the ocean side, where it joined the sea-face.)The work was built to withstand the heaviestartillery fire. There was no moat with scarpand counterscarp, so essential for defense againststorming parties, the shifting sands rendering itsconstruction impossible with the material avail-able. The outer slope was twenty feet high fromthe berme to the top of the parapet, at an angle of45°, and was sodded with marsh grass, whichgrew luxuriantly. The parapet was not less thantwenty-five feet thick, with an inclination of onlyone foot. The revetment was five feet nine incheshigh from the floor of the gun-chambers, and thesewere some twelve feet or more from the interiorplane. The guns were all mounted in barbette, onColumbiad carriages ; there was not a single case-mated gun in the fort. Experience had taughtthat casemates of timber and sand-bags were adelusion and a snare against heavy projectiles;and there was no iron to construct them with.Between the gun-chambers, containing one or twoguns each (there were twenty heavy guns on theland-face), there were heavy traverses, exceedingin size any known to engineers, to protect from anenfilading fire. They extended out some twelve feeton the parapet, and were twelve feet or more inheight above the parapet, running back thirty feetor more. The gun-chambers were reached from therear by steps. In each traverse was an alternatemagazine or bomb-proof, the latter ventilated byan air-chamber. Passageways penetrated thetraverses in the interior of the work, forming addi-tional bomb-proofs for the reliefs for the guns.

The sea-face for a hundred yards from the north-east bastion was of the same massive character asthe land-face. A crescent battery [see p. 649],intended for four guns, joined this. It had beenoriginally built of palmetto logs and tarred sand-bags and sand revetted with sod; but the logshad decayed, and it was converted into a hos-pital bomb-proof. In its rear a heavy curtainwas thrown up to protect the chambers from frag-ments of shells. From this bomb-proof a seriesof batteries extended for three-quarters of a milealong the sea, connected by an infantry curtain.These batteries had heavy traverses, but werenot more than ten or twelve feet high to thetop of the parapets, and were built for ricochetfiring. On this line was a bomb-proof electricbattery connected with a system of submarine tor-pedoes. Farther along, where the channel ran closeto the beach, inside the bar, a mound battery 60

J When I assumed command of Fort Fisher, July 4th,1862, it was composed of several detached earth-works,with a easemated battery of sand and palmetto logs,mounting four guns and with only one heavy gun in theworks. The frigate Minnesota could have destroyedthe works and driven us out in a few hours. I immedi-ately went to work, and with 500 colored laborers, as-sisted by the garrison, constructed the largest earth-work in the Southern Confederacy, of heavy timberscovered by sand from 15 to 20 feet deep and sodded with

feet high was erected, with two heavy guns, whichhad a plunging fire on the channel; this was con-nected with the battery north of it by a light cur-tain. Following the line of the works, it was overone mile from the mound to the north-east bastionat the angle of the sea and land faces, and uponthis line twenty-four heavy guns were mounted.From the mound for nearly a mile to the end ofthe point was a level sand-plain scarcely threefeet above high tide, and much of it was sub-merged during gales. At the point was BatteryBuchanan, four guns, in the shape of an ellipse,commanding the inlet, its two 11-inch guns cover-ing the approach by land. It was garrisoned bya detachment from the Confederate States navy.An advanced redoubt with a 24-pounder was addedafter the attack by the forces under General But-ler and Admiral Porter on Christmas, 1864. Awharf for large steamers was in close proximity tothese works. Battery Buchanan was a citadel towhich an overpowered garrison might retreat andwith proper transportation be safely carried off atnight, and to which reenforcements could be sentunder the cover of darkness.

Thus Fort Fisher, being designed to withstandthe heaviest bombardment, was extremely difficultto defend against assault after its guns were de-stroyed. The soldiers in the gun-chambers couldnot see the approach in front for a hundred feet,and to repel assailants they had to leave all coverand stand upon the open parapet.

As a defense against infantry there was a systemof sub-terra torpedoes extending across the penin-sula, five to six hundred feet from the land-face,and so disconnected that the explosion of onewould not affect the others ; inside the torpedoes,about fifty feet from the berme of the work, ex-tending from river bank to sea-shore, was a heavypalisade of sharpened logs nine feet high piercedfor musketry, and so laid out as to have an enfilad-ing fire on the center, where there was a redoubt,guarding a sally-port, from which two Napoleonswere run out, as occasion required. At the riverend of the palisade was a deep and muddy slough,across which was a bridge, the entrance of the riverroad into the fort; commanding this bridge wasa Napoleon gun. There were three mortars inrear of the land-face.

It was after a careful reconnoissance on De-cember 25th, 1864, having drawn our fire by anadvance of his skirmish-line to within 75 yards ofthe fort, that General Godfrey Weitzel, findingthe works substantially uninjured by the explosionof the powder-ship [see p. 655] and the two days’terrific bombardment of Porter’s great armada, re-ported to Butler that the fort could not be carriedby assault. & In the works on that afternoon were

turf. Tlie fort was far from complete when it was at-tacked, especially as against an assault hy land; the sidesexposed to the sea being first constructed, on the theorythat the Army of Wilmington would prevent an invest-ment.—W. L.

General B. F. Butler in his report of the operationsof his t roops, says in part:

“Brevet Brigadier-General [N. M.] Curtis, who deserveswell for his gallantry and conduct, immediately pushed up hisbrigade within a few hundred yards of Fort Fisher, captur-