Daniel Ammen, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 7.2, The Atlantic Coast
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[231] some of the guns of the enemy, and he determined that before the army went to the assault there should be no guns within the reach of the fleet to arrest progress; he saw, too, that within, near Mound battery, heavy guns were brought to bear, and therefore changed the plan of bombardment on the next day.

On the 14th, all of the small gunboats carrying Xi-inch pivot guns were sent into positions commanding the north face of Fisher to dismount the guns bearing along the intended line of assault by the army; line No. 1 at the same time delivering a rapid fire on the fort to keep the enemy in his bomb-proofs. The vessels were fairly in position at 1 P. M., and all of them actively employed until long after dark, and during the whole night this gunboat fire was added to that of the slower fire of the ironclads. The guns far up in the line of works alone replied to this attack, and in doing so hit the gunboats occasionally, cutting off the mainmast of the Huron and doing other damage.

In the evening, General Terry visited the flag-ship Malvern to arrange final plans. His troops on the night after landing had effected a lodgment and thrown up defences across the peninsula, some two miles north of Fort Fisher. They had recovered from the effects of the sea voyage and from the drenching received when landing in the surf, and were prepared to make the assault, and gallantly indeed was it done the following afternoon.

It was determined that the entire fleet should go into action at an early hour the following day, and continue a vigorous bombardment until the hour of assault. The admiral ‘detailed 1,600 sailors and 400 marines to accompany the troops in the assault, the sailors to board the sea face while the troops assaulted the land side.’ The order sent to commanders of vessels was as follows: ‘The sailors will be ’