570 



KAVY, U. S., OPERATIONS OF. 



the commanders of companies to stay them, the 

 men in the rear, seeing the slaughter in front, 

 and that they were not covered by the marines, 

 commenced to retreat; and, as there is no stop- 

 ping a sailor if he fails on such an occasion on 

 the first rush, I saw the whole thing had to be 

 given up." The attack on this part of the fort, 

 though a failure, diverted a part of the enemy's 

 attention, and rendered the work laid out for 

 the main storming column of troops much easier. 

 At the word of command, the division of 

 General Ames, which had been gradually 

 drawn forward under the shelter of hastily- 

 formed breastworks, rushed toward the fort, 

 the brigade of Curtis taking the lead. The 

 palisades had been so much injured by the fire 

 of the fleet that a few vigorous strokes from 

 the axemen sufficed to clear gaps for the pas- 

 sage of the troops, and in the face of a severe 

 enfilading fire a lodgment was soon effected on 

 the west end of the land front. Pennybacker's 

 and Bell's brigades followed in rapid succes- 

 sion, the latter moving between the work and 

 the river. " On this side," says General Terry, 

 " there was no regular parapet, but there was 

 an abundance of cover afforded to the enemy 

 by cavities, from which sand had been taken 

 for the parapet, the ruins of barracks and store- 

 houses, the large magazine, and by traverses 

 behind which they stubbornly resisted our ad- 

 vance. Hand to hand fighting of the most 

 desperate character ensued, the huge traverses 

 of the land face being used successively by the 

 enemy as breastworks, over the tops of which 

 tho contending parties fired in each other's 

 faces. Nine of these were carried, one after 

 the other, by our men." At five o'clock, when 

 about half of the land front of the fort had 

 been thus captured, it became apparent that 

 more troops were needed to support the as- 

 saulting column, and Abbott's brigade was 

 ordered up, its place in the defensive line fac- 

 ing Wilmington being supplied by the sailors 

 and marines. The attack then went on wilh 

 redoubled fury, the fire of the navy meanwhile 

 continuing upon that part of the work not oc- 

 cupied by the Federal troops, and upon the 

 beach on Cape Fear River, under the appre- 

 hension that reenforcements might be thrown 

 over there by the rebels from the right bank 

 of the river. All this time signals between the 

 land and naval forces were exchanged with 

 great exactness, and the cooperation between 

 the two services was in the highest degree 

 harmonious and useful. By 9 p. M. two 

 more traverses were carried, and an hour later 

 Abbott's brigade drove the enemy from their 

 remaining stronghold, and the occupation of 

 the work was complete. The enemy fell grad- 

 ually back to Federal Point, where, being cut 

 oft' from further retreat, they surrendered 

 unconditionally about midnight. About 4 

 P. M. Hoke had advanced against Fame's di- 

 vision, as if intending a general assault, but 

 retired after a slight skirmish with the out- 

 posts. The garrison originally numbered over 



2,300 men, of whom 1,971, with 112 officers, 

 were captured. The rest were killed and 

 wounded. Their commanders, General Whit- 

 ing and Colonel Lamb, were captured, badly 

 wounded. Of the three brigade commanders 

 of Ames's division, Curtis and Pennybacker 

 were severely, and Bell was mortally wounded, 

 and the total Federal loss, according to official 

 accounts, footed up as follows : 



The fleet suffered a loss of between two and 

 three hundred in killed and wounded, princi- 

 pally in the assaulting column of sailors and 

 marines, and two 15-inch guns were exploded 

 on board the monitors. In other respects the 

 ships experienced little damage. 



The greater part of the guns of the fort were 

 dismounted, or otherwise injured by the fire 

 of the fleet, but the work itself received no 

 damage which was not susceptible of imme- 

 diate repair, its strength being about the same 

 as before the bombardment. According to Ad- 

 miral Porter, who had visited the Malakoff 

 during the siege of Sebastopol, it was a much 

 more formidable work than that celebrated 

 stronghold, and its capture caused an almost 

 unprecedented rejoicing throughout the United 

 States. The capture of the fort having seal- 

 ed the fate of the rebel supremacy in Cape 

 Fear River, their remaining works covering the 

 mouth of the river, including Fort Caswell and 

 the forts at Smith's Island, Smithville, and 

 Reeves' Point, together with the gunboats 

 Chickamauga and Tallahassee, were destroyed 

 or evacuated, whereby 169 guns and large 

 amounts of ammunition and commissary stores 

 fell into the hands of the Federals. Among 

 the guns were some English ones of Sir Wil- 

 liam Armstrong's make. Admiral Porter im- 

 mediately sent some of his light draught gun- 

 boats into the river, and by a skilful rase de- 

 coyed several blockade-runners under the shel- 

 ter of Fort Caswell, where they were of course 

 speedily captured. 



2. South Atlantic Squadron. The opera- 

 tions of this squadron, which in 1863 were of 

 the first importance, were much curtailed in 

 the succeeding year by a variety of circum- 

 stances, the chief of which was the withdrawal 

 of the greater part of the troops of the Depart- 

 ment of the South, under Gen. Gillmore, to ( 

 reenforce the Army of the James. Deprived*, 

 of this necessary cooperative branch, Admiral 

 Dahlgren found it impossible to make any 

 serious demonstration against Charleston, and 

 the fleet in that quarter was principally em- 

 ployed in blockade duties. A detachment of 

 vessels cooperated in the St. John's Ri per with 



