Gibraltar 

 Of America. 



By Sarah Friday Peters 



Dec. 24, 1864, Union soldiers headed for 

 New Inlet with one thing in mind. 



They were to seize one of the last Confederate 

 forts that protected the thriving port of Wilmington. 



But something stood in their way. 



Fort Fisher. 



From the flat lands of the beaches loomed the 

 largest earthwork fortification in the South. Like a 

 giant in the forest or pyramids in the desert, Fort 

 Fisher awed them. 



And they turned back. 



The famous fort fell later, but remained one of 

 the most important and unique structures from 

 the Civil War. 



Unlike other forts built of brick and mortar, Fort 

 Fisher was built by hand with earth and sand. 



And its strategic location played a vital role in 

 the protection of Wilmington and the entire 

 Confederacy. 



Today trees and vegetation cover the remaining 

 mounds. 



In 1860, Wilmington was a commercial hub 

 that boasted a population of nearly 10,000. In 

 wartime, it became the last major port open to 

 the Confederacy, and the destination of steamers, 

 called blockade runners, that smuggled provi- 

 sions to Southern troops. 



These ships traveled to Bermuda, the Bahamas 

 and Nova Scotia to exchange cotton and tobac- 

 co for food, clothing and munitions from British 

 traders. 



Keeping in the war for the Confederacy meant 

 keeping Wilmington's accessways open. 



Since 1826, Fort Caswell had protected one 

 entrance to the port. 



But New Inlet, which had been carved by a 

 hurricane in 1761, remained defenseless. 



Strategic command for securing the Cape Fear 

 River from attack was placed in the hands of Maj. 

 Gen. W.H.C. Whiting of Wilmington. Fort design 

 and engineering became the task of Col. William 

 Lamb, also of Wilmington. 



Lamb envisioned a fort that could not be taken. 

 So he modeled Fort Fisher after a Russian fort 

 that survived three years of onslaught during the 

 Crimean War. 



Troops and slaves began construction in 

 May 1861. 



First they built approximately 14,000 square 

 feet of underground bombproof shelters, powder 

 magazines and tunnel works. Then they piled 

 sand mounds on top and stacked mud from the 

 marsh around them for support. Timbers rein- 

 forced gun platforms. 



In the end, Fort Fisher resembled the figure 7. 

 It ran 680 yards from west to east and 1 ,800 

 yards south. The massive mounds averaged 32 

 feet in height. The tallest reached 60 feet. 



Forty-seven cannons stood guard. And a nine- 

 foot tall palisade fence ran from the river to the 

 ocean on the land face. 



On Dec. 24, 1864, the "Gibraltar of America" 

 got its first test. 



Union forces knew the capture of Fort Fisher 

 would open the river to federal gunboats and 

 make the other Confederate camps easy to 

 occupy. 



The Union planned to blow up Fort Fisher with 

 a boat loaded with 215 tons of powder. At 1:45 

 a.m., that boat, the Louisiana, exploded with little 

 more than a fizzle and left the fort unharmed. 



Undaunted, the Union Army charged ashore 

 and advanced toward Fort Fisher. 



