Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[674] with a garrison increased to about twenty-five hundred men. In the afternoon the enemy pushed a reconnoissance within five hundred yards of the fort. It seemed probable that troops could be got within two hundred yards of the work without serious loss; and it was a matter of doubt with the enemy, whether the necessary ammunition could be supplied by the open beach, if regular approaches were determined on. It was decided to assault the next day.

While these movements on land were taking place, the enemy's fleet had held Fort Fisher enveloped in a terrific fire for three days. More than four hundred guns poured torrents of shells and missiles on every spot. There were three divisions of the fleet — the first, led by the “Brooklyn,” numbered one hundred and sixteen guns; the second, by the “Minnesota,” one hundred and seventy-six guns; and the third, composed of gunboats, with one hundred and twenty-three guns. During the afternoon of the 15th January--the day appointed for the assault-this immense armament poured in a concentric fire upon the fort; and while the tossing clouds of smoke incessantly rolled up from the water, Terry organized his force for the assault-three deployed brigades following one another, at intervals of about three hundred yards, and each making its final rush for the west end of the land face of the fort.

The rapid fire from the water prevented the Confederates from using either artillery or musketry, on the advancing lines of the enemy, until they had got within sixty yards of the fort, when the fire of the fleet lifted so as not to involve the assaulting column. The Confederates were brought to the charge after having been packed in the bomb-proofs for fifty-six hours, many of them benumbed and exhausted. Capt. Braddy's company guarding the sally-port gave way. From seven to about ten o'clock at night, the fighting went on from traverse to traverse; it was a hand-to-hand fight, a heroic defence, in which bravery, endurance and devotion failed to overcome numbers. The enemy had not lost a man until he entered the fort, and the loss that he confessed to in the entire affair of seven or eight hundred killed and wounded, must have taken place within its inclosures. The garrison at last driven from the fort, retreated down the peninsula to the cover of some works near the inlet. But further resistance was useless; and about midnight, Gen. Whiting surrendered himself and men as prisoners of war, numbering over eighteen hundred, the remainder of his force being killed or wounded.

The fall of Fort Fisher ultimately decided the fate of Wilmington. It was followed by the blowing up of Fort Caswell, and the abandonment of the works on Smith's Island, which gave the enemy entire control of the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Fort Anderson, the main defence on the rest bank of the river, was evacuated on the 19th February, on the appearance of Porter's fleet before it, in conjunction with a land force under