The refuge of the defenders
When the wounded leaders (
Lamb and
Whiting) in command of
Fort Fisher saw it was impossible to hold out much longer, they were removed on stretchers along the sea-coast to Battery Buchanan, pictured at the bottom of the page.
The spent musket-balls from the stubborn battle still raging in the
Fort fell like hailstones around the party.
The garrison itself soon retreated to
Buchanan, where two miles of level sand separated them from the
Federal troops, now in full possession of the fort.
But they were defenseless, for the guns in
Buchanan had been spiked, and no means of escape was at hand.
Consequently, when the
Federal General J. C. Abbot arrived in the night with two regiments,
Colonel Lamb surrendered to him and his superior,
General A. H. Terry, the works, with the force of a thousand men and some sixty officers.
Though the
Federal army captured
Fort Fisher, the cooperation of the fleet was necessary to success.
During the two days of almost ceaseless bombardment a thousand tons of shot and shell were poured upon the defenses, wrecking nearly every gun and wounding or killing those of the garrison who dared to man the pieces.
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Battery Buchanan. |
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Battery Buchanan. |
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