Civil War, Land Ops

                                            13-15 JANUARY 1865

                               FT. FISHER FALLS (cont. from Dec 25)

After MGEN Benjamin Butler’s Christmas assault was rebuffed, RADM David Dixon Porter returned off Fort Fisher on the 12^th of January.  Two lessons had been learned in the failed attempt–the naval bombardment would have to be more effective, and the land assault would have to be more aggressive.  Even GEN Ulysses Grant recognized the importance of closing the last Confederate port and this time sent a new Army commander, MGEN Alfred J. Terry, with 12,000 troops and a siege train.

This morning, Porter moved the ironclad NEW IRONSIDES and four monitors to within 700 yards of the fort.  The gunners had orders to avoid random shots or vain attempts to carry away the flagpole, rather they were to dismantle the fort’s guns.  This time their work was effective, and by afternoon Terry was landing troops out of range onto the river shore.  To be sure, in these days the Army enjoyed primacy as a US military force, the Navy often being envisioned simply as a supporting force.  Porter probably knew that if Terry took the fort the Army would get sole credit for the victory.  Against this possibility Porter issued General Order 81 which instructed 1600 bluejackets and 400 Marines from Porter’s ships to take the fort by assaulting up the sloping sea face:

“The sailors will be armed with cutlasses, well sharpened, and with revolvers…When the signal is made to assault, the boats will pull around the stern of the monitors and land right abreast of them, and board the fort on the run in a seaman-like way.”

Late in the afternoon of the 15^th, 2000 sea-servicemen, who had never before fought as a unit, landed on the sea face under the command of LCDR Kidder R. Breese.  Unfortunately, the inclined wall turned out to be nearly vertical, ringed at its base by a breakwater of rocks.  There was little cover, and the Confederates rained down a hailstorm of canister and rifle fire.  Three unsuccessful charges cut the bluejackets to pieces, 350 of the landing party were killed or wounded.  Unable to advance or withdraw, they hunkered behind rocks through the cold night.  Exposure and sniping claimed more.  Thought this primary assault failed, the brave action at the foot of the wall diverted Confederate attention, allowing Terry to breach two gun traverses in the northwest corner before being discovered.  The fort fell.

The subsequent surrender of Wilmington validated GEN Lee’s dire prediction.  His defense of Richmond was fatally starved of supplies, and the Confederacy fell within four months.

Watch the POD for more “Today in Naval History”

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Rehabilitation Medicine

Anderson, Bern.  By Sea and by River:  The Naval History of the Civil War.  New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1962, pp. 276-84.

Fowler, William M., Jr.  Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War.  New York, NY: Avon Books, 1990, pp. 263, 266-72.

Gragg, Rod.  Confederate Goliath:  The Battle of Fort Fisher.  Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1991.

Page, Dave.  Ships Versus Shore:  Civil War Engagements along Southern Shores and Rivers.  Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1994, pp. 82-102.

Reed, Michael and John T. Kuehn.  “Triumph of Civil War ‘Jointness.'”  Naval History, Vol 27 (6), December 2013, pp. 32-39.

Robinson, Charles M.  Hurricane of Fire:  The Union Assault on Fort Fisher.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1998.

Site visit, Fort Fisher State Park, Kure City, North Carolina, 8 December 2001.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Historians agree that one of David Dixon Porter’s shortcomings was his strong desire to achieve personal glory in battle, even at the cost of sailors’ lives.  Above is one example often cited from the Civil War.

Our WWI destroyer USS BREESE (DD-122) remembers LCDR Breese above.  David Dixon Porter and his father David Porter are remembered with five warships; TB-6, DD-59, DD-356, DD-800, and DDG-78.