Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/589

 1864-5] Capture of Fort Fisher. 557 Treasury shows the magnitude of the trade which went on through Wil- mington. Between October 26, 1864, and January, 1865, 8,632,000 Ibs. of meat, 1,507,000 Ibs. of lead, 1,933,000 Ibs. of saltpetre, 546,000 pairs of shoes, 316,000 pairs of blankets, half-a-million pounds of coffee, 69,000 rifles, and 43 cannon were obtained through this port from the outer world, while cotton sufficient to pay for these purchases was exported. The problem of defending the place was complicated by the shortness of ammunition for the guns mounted in Fort Fisher. There were but 3600 rounds for the 44 guns, or less than 90 rounds per gun; and no more was to be obtained. In December, 1864, a large fleet, including six ironclads, arrived off the fort, accompanied by 6500 Northern troops under General Butler. Rear- Admiral Porter commanded the fleet. On the night of the 23rd a ship laden with powder was exploded close to the fort. It had been anticipated that the explosion would destroy the fort; but so little damage was done that the garrison believed a Northern war-ship to have been blown up by the fire of their guns. After this unpromising beginning, the fort was heavily bombarded on December 24; and the bombardment was resumed next day. In the afternoon of the 25th the troops landed, and advanced to carry the work by assault. Their generals, however, convinced themselves that the place was still too strong to be stormed; and, to the great dissatisfaction of Porter and Grant, the troops re-embarked. In view of this ignominious failure, Butler was replaced by General Terry, an officer of great decision ; and on January 13, 1865, the attack was renewed, the fleet bombarding while the troops landed. The fort had now only 2300 rounds of ammunition left, so that it could not waste a shot. All day the bombardment continued ; it was repeated on the 14th and again on the 15th. Then at a given signal the ships concentrated their entire fire on the landward face of the fort, while, to the sound of a prolonged blast upon the whistle of every ship, the troops and a party of seamen ashore moved forward to the assault in two columns. The fort was carried after a desperate and bloody struggle, in which the casualties of the Northern army were 691 killed, wounded, and missing. The loss of the fleet was 74 killed, 213 wounded, and 22 missing. With the fall of the fort the value of Wilmington vanished; and the place itself was occupied some weeks later. In April Lee's half-starved army was forced away from before Richmond to the surrender of Appomattox. In the words of the historian of the Confederate navy, " the fall of Wilmington was the severest blow to the Confederate cause which it could receive from the loss of any port. It was far more injurious than the capture of Charleston, and, but for the moral effect, even more hurtful than the evacuation of Richmond. With Wilmington open, the supplies that reached the Confederate armies would have enabled them to have maintained an unequal contest for years; but with the fall of Fort