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

[237] skirmish line, they certainly would have reached General Terry's intrenchments in bad plight, and admitting that line had been carried, the Confederates would not have been formidable after a march of two miles toward Fort Fisher on an open sandspit under the fire of gunboats.

Shortly after ten o'clock resistance in Fort Fisher ceased, the Confederates retreating, as is stated by Colonel Lamb, without ammunition, to the innermost point, from whence such of them as had the means of transportation escaped. Lieutenant Chapman and others of the Confederate Navy are known to have done so, but the whole number that fled is not ascertainable. When the sound of fire-arms had ceased, and it was known the enemy had surrendered, the sky was illuminated by hundreds of rockets from the fleet, and the remote works for the defence of the entrances to Cape Fear River were thus incidentally apprised that their defenders had the alternative in prospect to surrender or to precipitately retreat.

In the Appendix will be found the list of the vessels engaged, by whom commanded, the batteries, and the casualties in the fleet.

Among the killed in the assault were Lieutenants Preston and Porter, both of them young officers of great ability and admirable qualities; also Assistant-Surgeon Longshaw and Ensign Wiley, and by the explosion of the magazine, Paymaster Gillett and Ensign Leighton. There were wounded in the assault, Lieutenant-Commander Allen, Lieutenants Bache, Lamson, and Baury; Ensigns Evans, Harris, Chester, Bertwistle, O'Connor, Coffin, and Wood; Acting-Master Louch, and Mates Green, Simms, and Aldridge.

In relation to Flag-Captain Breese, who led the assault, Lieutenant-Commander Parker said in his report: ‘He led the advance to the palisades, and when he saw the rear delaying, ’