Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/292

274 pieces of light artillery. The sea face was 1,898 yards in length, consisting of batteries connected by a heavy curtain and ending in the mound battery 60 feet high, mounting in all twenty-four heavy guns, including one 170-pound Blakely rifled gun and one i3o-pound Armstrong rifled gun. At the extreme end of the point was Battery Buchanan with four heavy guns. &quot;

General Whiting and Colonel Lamb had both expended much labor and ingenuity in perfecting the defenses of this fort. Wilmington was the port into which the block ade runners were bringing so large a portion of the supplies necessary for the Confederacy that General Lee said if Fort Fisher fell he could not subsist his army. This thought nerved Lamb to prolonged resistance.

The garrison, when the Federal fleet arrived on December 2oth, consisted of five companies of the Thirty-sixth North Carolina (artillery) regiment. General Whiting, in command of the department, entered the fort as soon as it was threatened. Major Reilly, of the Tenth regiment (artillery), with two of his companies also reported there. Colonel Lamb states that the total effective force on December 25th was 1,431, consisting of 921 regulars, about 450 Junior reserves, and 60 sailors and marines.

The &quot;powder-ship&quot; Louisiana, loaded with 250 tons of powder, was headed for the fort, and exploded on the night of the 23d. This explosion, however, proved harmless. Then, on the 24th, the fleet approached for bombardment. Colonel Lamb thus tells his experience under that fire: &quot;The fleet, consisting of the Ironsides, four monitors and forty- five wooden steam frigates, commenced a terrific bombardment. . . . For five hours a tremendous hail of shot and shell was poured upon the works with but little effect. At 5 130 the fleet with drew. . . . Some 10,000 shot and shell were fired by the fleet. The fort being obliged to husband its ammunition, fired only 672 projectiles. . . . Only 23 men were wounded."