89. Attack on Fort Fisher
By ROBLEY D. EVANS (1865)
[_]
Fort Fisher protected the in mouth of the Cape Fear
River, below Wilmington, North Carolina, a favorite entrance
for blockade runners.
The fleet was lying at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
ADMIRAL PORTER assumed command in November, and at once
began assembling a powerful fleet. Every preparation was made
for active service. Boilers and machinery were overhauled,
magazines, shell-rooms, and storehouses replenished, and
constant target practice was had with all guns. By the end of
November the largest fleet ever seen under the American flag
was assembled in Hampton Roads, all classes, from the largest
monitor to the smallest gunboat, being represented. Our
destination was a secret, carefully guarded; but we surmised
from what was taking place that some important move was
contemplated, and in this we were not mistaken. It was evident
from the daily target practice that the Admiral meant we should
hit something when the time for action came, and the landing of
the men on the beach for drill was an indication of possible
shore service.
Early in December the troop ships arrived— thirteen thousand
men under General B. F. Butler
and still our destination was a secret. Toward the middle of
Decemer all our preparations had been completed, and we put
to sea under sealed orders.
Before leaving Fortress Monroe, General Butler had proposed a
powder boat, by the explosion of which he hoped seriously to
injure the forts on Federal Point, including Fort Fisher. Indeed
he was confident that he would dismount most of the guns and
level the works. An old steamer, the Georgiana, had been
loaded with several hundred tons of powder, and turned over
to the navy to explode at the proper spot. A crew of volunteers
had her in charge, and on the evening of December 24, took her
in for the final act of her career. No man in the navy believed for
a moment that she would do much harm, but none of us
anticipated how little injury would come from the explosion.
At eleven o'clock that night Admiral Porter steamed about the
fleet in his flagship, the sidewheeled steamer Malvern, and
made signal: "Powder boat will blow up at 1.30 A.M. Be prepared
to get under way, and stand in to engage the fort! "After that
there was no sleep for any one; we stood and watched and
waited as the hours slowly dragged by. Half-past one came and
no explosion, and we were fearful of some mishap; but just as
the bells struck two o'clock it came. First came a gentle
vibration, then the masts and spars shook as if they would
come down about our cars; and then came the low rumble like
distant thunder, while the sky to the westward was lighted up
for a few seconds, and then great masses of powder smoke
hung over the land like thunder clouds. Surely the powder boat
had blown up, and as the fleet rapidly formed for battle
there was great curiosity everywhere to see what the effect
had been.
At daylight we. were heading in for the fort, and almost in
range, when we saw General Butler's flagship coming in at full
speed, heading straight at Fort Fisher, which looked to us
very grim and strong and totally uninjured. 'Everything was
very quiet until the General got fairly within range, when there
was a flash from the fort and a prolonged roar, and all
the guns on the face of that work opened on his ship. If he had
had any notion that he could land unopposed he was quickly
undeceived, and the way that ship turned and got off shore
spoke well for the energy of her fire-room force! The last we
saw of her she was running cast as fast as her engines could
carry her. The powder boat had proved a failure, and the
General was grievously disappointed. A rebel newspaper
reported that a Yankee gunboat had blown up on the beach
and all hands lost.
We bad been up many of us all night and our only breakfast
had been coffee and hard-tack. As we approached our
position, Commodore Schenck sent me aloft with a pair of
glasses to locate, if possible, some guns that were annoying
him. It was a raw cold morning, and I had on a short double-breasted coat, in the pockets of which I had stowed several
pieces of hard-tack. When I had taken my place in the mizzen
rigging, just below the top, I put the corner of a hard-tack in
my mouth, and was holding it between my teeth while I looked
through the glasses for the guns. I caught them at once, and
saw gunners train one of them around until I could only see
the muzzle of it, which interested me because I knew it was
pointing directly at us. There was a puff of smoke, something
like a lamp-post crossed the field of the glass, and a moment
after the rigging was cut four feet below me, and I swung into
the mast. I at once thought of my hard-tack, but it was gone,
and I never found even a crumb of it. I am sure that I
swallowed it whole. When I had reported what I had made out
of the battery, I was directed to lay down from aloft to my
station, which was in charge of the after division of the guns;
but I hesitated to do so, because my knees were shaking, and
I was afraid the men would see it. However, I had to come
down, and as soon as I reached the deck, I stood up and
looked at my legs, and was greatly relieved to find that they
did not show the nervous tremor which worried me so. I soon
forgot all abou it as I became interested and warmed up to my
work.
We had only eighteen inches of water under us when we
finally anchored and began firing rapidly in
[_]
I.e., between the ship and the bottom.
obedience to signal from the Admiral. There was a wreck of a
blockade-runner between us and the battery at which we were
to fire, and it was evident that this had been used as a target
and that the range was well known. One or two shots were
fired in line with it, each one coming closer to us, and then
they struck us with a ten-inch shot. Four more followed, each
one striking nearly in the same place, on the bends forward of
the starboard wheel, and going through on to the berth deck.
Then for some reason the shot and shell began going over us,
striking the water thirty or forty feet away. Probably the
gunners on shore could not see the splash of these shots,
and thought they were striking us. If they had not changed
their range when they did they would have sunk us in an
hour. As it was, we hauled out at sundown, pretty well
hammered, and leaking so that we had to shift all our guns to
port in order to stop the shot holes.
We had damaged the fort to the extent of dismounting some
of the guns and burning the barracks and officers' quarters.
When the whole line was fairly engaged the sight was
magnificent, and never to be forgotten by those who saw it.
No fort had ever before been subjected to such a fire, and the
garrison could only make a feeble response; most of them
were driven into the bomb-proofs, where they remained till we
hauled off for the night. The heaviest losses on our side had
been caused by the bursting of the one-hundred pound
Parrott rifles ; thirty-five or forty men had beer. killed or
wounded in this way.