Second Battle of Fort Fisher

Capture of Fort Fisher by Kurz and Allison, 1890.

Date	January 13–15, 1865
Location	New Hanover County, North Carolina 33°58′17″N 77°55′05″W / 33.9715°N 77.9180°W / 33.9715; -77.9180Coordinates: 33°58′17″N 77°55′05″W / 33.9715°N 77.9180°W / 33.9715; -77.9180
Result	Union victory

Belligerents

United States (Union)

CSA (Confederacy)

Commanders and leaders

Alfred H. Terry
David D. Porter

Braxton Bragg
William H.C. Whiting (DOW)
Robert Hoke
William Lamb

Units involved

Department of Virginia and North Carolina:

Terry's Provisional Corps (units detached from XXIV and XXV Corps)

North Atlantic Blockading Squadron

Fort Fisher Garrison
Hoke's Division

Strength

Army: 9,632
Navy: 58 ships; 2,261 (sailors/marines)

1,900 (Fort Fisher)
6,400 (Hoke's Division)

Casualties and losses

Army: 664 (111 killed; 540 wounded; 13 missing)
Navy: 393 (88 killed; 271 wounded; 34 missing)

1,900 (583 killed and wounded; entire Fort Fisher garrison captured)

Department of Virginia and North Carolina:

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a successful assault by the Union Army, Navy and Marine Corps against Fort Fisher, south of Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War in January 1865. Sometimes referred to as the "Gibraltar of the South" and the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy, Fort Fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war, providing a port for blockade runners supplying the Army of Northern Virginia.

Wilmington was the last major port open to the Confederacy on the Atlantic seacoast. Ships leaving Wilmington via the Cape Fear River and setting sail for the Bahamas, Bermuda or Nova Scotia to trade cotton and tobacco for needed supplies from the British were protected by the fort. Based on the design of the Malakoff redoubt in Sevastopol, Russian Empire, Fort Fisher was constructed mostly of earth and sand. This made it better able to absorb the pounding of heavy fire from Union ships than older fortifications constructed of mortar and bricks. Twenty-two guns faced the ocean, while twenty-five faced the land. The sea face guns were mounted on 12-foot-high (3.7 m) batteries with larger, 45-and-60-foot (14 and 18 m) batteries at the southern end of the fort. Underground passageways and bombproof rooms existed below the giant earthen mounds of the fort. The fortifications kept Union ships from attacking the port of Wilmington and the Cape Fear River.

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