THE DEFENSE OF FORT FISHER.

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realize that I was incapacitated from joining mymen again. In the hospital I found General Whitingsuffering uncomplainingly from his two wounds.He told me that Bragg had ignored his presencein the fort and had not noticed his messages. Iperceived that the fire of my men had slackened,and sent my acting adjutant, John N. Kelly, forMajor Reilly, next in command (Major James M.Stevenson being too ill for service). Reilly cameand promised me that he would continue the fightas long as a man or a shot was left, and nobly didlie keep liis promise. I again sent a message toBragg begging him to come to the rescue. Shortlyafter my fall the Fedora Is made an advance, and,capturing several more of the gun-chambers,reached the sally-port. The column in the workadvanced, but Major Reilly, rallying the men,among them the South Carolinians, who had allbecome engaged, drove them back. About 8o’clock at night my aide came to me and said theammunition was giving out; that he and ChaplainMcKinnon had gathered all on the dead andwounded in a blanket and had distributed it; thatthe enemy had possession of nearly all of theland-face; that it was impossible to hold out muchlonger, and suggested that it would be wise to sur-render, as a further struggle might be a uselesssacrifice of life. I replied that so long as I livedI would not surrender the fort; that Bragg mustsoon come to the rescue, and it would save us.General Whiting remarked, “Lamb, when .youdieI will assume command, and I will not surrenderthe fort.” In less than an hour a fourth brigade(three were already in the fort under GeneralAmes) entered the sally-port and swept the de-fenders from the remainder of the land-face.Major Reilly had General Whiting and myselfhurriedly removed on stretchers to Battery Bu-

BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL GAEUSIIA PENNYPACKER.PROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

chanan, where he purposed to make a stand.When we left the hospital the men were fightingover the adjoining traverse and the spent balls

fell like hail-stones around us. The garrisonthen fell back in an orderly retreat along the sea-face, the rear-guard keeping the enemy engaged

BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ADELBERT AMES.

EROM A PHOTOGRAPH.

as they advanced slowly and cautiously in thedarkness as far as the Mound Battery, where theyhalted. Some of the men, cut off from the mainbody, had to retreat as best they could over theriver marsh, while some few unarmed artilleristsbarely eluded the enemy by following the sea-shore. When we reached Battery Buchanan therewas a mile of level beach between us and our pur-suers, swept by two 11-inehguns and a 24-pounder,and in close proximity to the battery, a commodiouswharf where transports could have come to carrythe men off. We expected to cover with this bat-tery the retreat of the remnant of the garrison,but we found the guns spiked, and every means oftransportation, even the barge and crew of thecolonel commanding, taken by Captain R. F. Chap-man, of our navy, who, following the example ofGeneral Bragg, had abandoned us to our fate.None of the guns of Fort Fisher were spiked, themen fighting them until they were destroyed ortheir defenders were killed, wounded, or driven outof the batteries by overwhelming numbers. Theenemy threw out a heavy skirmish-line and senttheir fourth brigade to Battery Buchanan, where itarrived about 10 P. m. and received the surrenderof the garrison from Major James IT. Hill and Lieu-tenant George D. Parker. Some fifteen minutesor more before the surrender, while lying on astretcher near General Whiting in front of the bat-tery, and witnessing the grand pyrotechnic displayof the fleet over the capture of Fort Fisher, I wasaccosted by General A. H. Colquitt, who had beenordered to the fort to take command. I had a fewmoments’ hurried conversation with him, informedhim of the assault, of the early loss of a portion ofthe work and garrison, and that when I fell it hadfor a time demoralized the men, but that theenemy was equally demoralized by our unexpected