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 Military Order of the Loyal Legion 
 War ^aper 4-0 
 Last of the Blockade 
 
STEPHEN Bo WEEKS 
 
 CLASS OF 1886: PUD. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 
 
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 COMMANDERY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
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 WAR PAPER 40. 
 
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 |^all of j^ort fisher. 
 
Military ©rder of tfye bo^al tae^ion 
 
 United §tafes. 
 
 dOMMAWDEI^Y OF THE DI^lCT OF CDLIiqBI^. 
 
 WAR PAPERS. 
 
 40 
 
 The £ast of the Blockade and the "Fall of Fort "Fisher. 
 
 PREPARED BY COMPANION 
 Acting Master 
 
 FRANCIS P. B. SANDS, 
 
 Late U. S. N. 
 
 AND 
 
 READ AT THE STATED MEETING OF MARCH 5, 1902. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/lastofblockadefaOOsand 
 
no 
 
 Me tot of the IHfldtttde and the Jail oi $ovt 
 
 Jfeher. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1862 the sloop of war Dacotah, 
 commanded by my father, Captain Benjamin F. Sands, was 
 ordered to duty off the entrances to Cape Fear river, where 
 there were but eight or ten vessels then engaged on blockading 
 service. 
 
 As an acting ensign on that vessel I began my experiences 
 in active service in the war for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 
 The need for supplies for the Confederate armies in the 
 Carolinas and Virginia, and the great profit in cotton from the 
 Southern States had brought forward from England a large 
 number of daring spirits, who, for the great gain of the ventures 
 and the excitement attending the traffic, were willing to dare 
 the risks of blockade running; and month by month their 
 numbers increased. 
 
 Charleston and Wilmington were the principal objective 
 points for such ventures, and as the numbers of the successful 
 trips increased the Federal Government taxed every resource 
 to multiply the number of vessels in front of those seaports, 
 and off the many inlets along the Atlantic coast. 
 
 All sorts and kinds of steamers were bought and fitted 
 out with batteries of Parrot guns and howitzers ; and the list 
 of volunteer officers, taken principally from the merchant 
 marine, was rapidly increased to officer and man these im- 
 provised gunboats, which were hurried to duty in the blockade 
 squadrons. 
 
As these vessels drew more closely their lines of blockade, 
 the Confederates increased the number and strength of their 
 forts and batteries, equipping them with the most advanced 
 types of rifled guns that could be procured abroad. 
 
 The Armstrong 150-pounder; the 8-inch Blakelys, and the 
 famous Whitworth guns soon appeared in these forts, and pro- 
 tected the approach of the blockade-runners after they had 
 passed stealthily our outer line of blockade. 
 
 One of the most capable, untiring and efficient of the Con- 
 federate officers in that department was Colonel William Lamb 
 who was on duty in command of Fort Fisher from July, 1862, 
 down to the date of its capture , in January , 1865. 
 
 Old Fort Caswell, at the Western Bar entrance, had been 
 improved beyond recognition by earthen traverses to protect 
 its barbette guns, and near Bald Head Light, on Smith's 
 Island, just opposite "Caswell," the addition of several bat- 
 teries with Whitworth guns had made reasonably secure that 
 entrance to the river. 
 
 From time to time, when seeking to follow in and destroy 
 the blockade-runners near the bar, the greater range of those 
 guns forced our vessels to seek safety at a respectful distance 
 from shore. 
 
 When Col. Lamb assumed command of the works on 
 Federal point, they consisted (as he has since informed me) of 
 only a quadrilateral field work, one casemated work, with four 
 8-inch columbiads, and a one-gun battery. Only 17 guns in 
 all were there. 
 
 As the daring and numbers of the blockade-runners increased, 
 so the numbers and vigilance of our blockading vessels became 
 greater. Our steamers kept in closer to the river entrances, 
 and frequently chased the runners quite near to the shore bat- 
 teries, occasionally driving them on the beach where they 
 
IS 
 
 were destroyed by our shot and shell. The wrecks of the 
 Ella, the Kate, the Hebe, the Venus, the Arabian and the 
 Lynx, long remained on the beach in testimony of the good 
 work done by us. 
 
 Colonel Lamb says that there were ioo vessels engaged 
 during that war in running the blockade to reach Wilmington 
 alone; and that of these 65 were either captured or destroyed. 
 We knew of 24 actually destroyed by our fleet there. 
 
 The New Inlet entrance was the favorite one for running. 
 So important did the traffic become to the Confederacy in 
 1 863-4, that the enemy had built a powerful ram to come out 
 on dark .nights to drive our vessels away, or by creating a 
 diversion to give the runners a better chance to slip in or out. 
 
 Once only do I recall of its driving a vessel from her station, 
 in March, 1863, and then the blockader, one of the light wooden 
 craft, steamed off only a short distance, and then turning 
 opened fire upon it and drove the Ram back inside. 
 
 The last I saw of that Ram was in June, 1864; she was hard 
 and fast on the inside Rips, disabled. 
 
 From the date of his arrival Col. Lamb bent his energies 
 towards increasing the strength and numbers of the fortifica- 
 tions on Federal Point. 
 
 The unusual activity of the Confederates, who, in increased 
 numbers, were observed to be hard at work constructing the 
 extensive works which soon spread from the face of Fort Fisher 
 back to the river bank, called for special reports to the Ad- 
 miral, S. P. Lee, commanding the North Atlantic Blockading 
 Squadron. 
 
 In December, 1862, began the discussion of plans for the 
 capture of Wilmington. At first Lee thought of New Inlet, 
 but later, in January and February, 1863, the Fort "Caswell" 
 entrance was thought of, and to Commander D. L. Braine 
 
were given instructions to survey at night in boats to ascertain 
 the depths of the channels and on the bar, with special view 
 to entrance by monitors like the Weehawkcn and Montauk. 
 Conferences were had with General John G. Foster, in com- 
 mand of the United States forces in the grounds, looking to 
 co-operation with him in a movement towards Wilmington from 
 Newberne. 
 
 About this time I was ordered to duty, as aid to the Admiral, 
 on the flag-ship Minnesota, and was able to keep informed 
 as to his efforts to secure army co-operation in an attack upon 
 the fortifications at the entrances to Cape Fear river. 
 
 In March, 1863, the Confederates had evidently learned of a 
 contemplated attack by the monitors, and, to enable them to 
 secure a point for a plunging fire upon the vulnerable decks 
 of those vessels, the construction of the great "Mound" bat- 
 tery of sand was begun about three-fourths of a mile from the 
 main fort. The work on this was continued until in June, 1864, 
 it was completed to a height of about sixty feet, and two heavy 
 rifled guns were mounted thereon to sweep the channels ; and 
 at the same time they provided a greater altitude for their 
 signal lights, thus communicating with the incoming blockade- 
 runners to a greater distance at sea as well as further up the 
 coast. 
 
 The Flagship Minnesota being then off New Inlet I made a 
 sketch of the entire works, from Zeek's Island up beyond Fort 
 Fisher, which the Admiral forwarded to the Secretary of the 
 Navy with his official report as to the existing fortifications 
 at that time, and this sketch appears on page 125 of Volume 
 IX of the Naval War Records. 
 
 The sketch shows the five heavy gun batteries between the 
 "Mound" and the main fort, then fully completed, and the 
 line of protecting earthworks about five feet high connecting 
 
them; and also shows how the main fort and these batteries 
 were built upon the highest ridge of sand upon the neck of 
 Federal Point. 
 
 These works were perfected during the year 1864, and were 
 armed with 75 guns, most of them of the heaviest caliber and 
 rifled, including the Armstrong, the Blakely and Brooks guns. 
 
 In October the formidable fortifications were further pro- 
 tected by the construction of the stockade or palisades, as they 
 were called by some, made of heavy cottonwood logs, along 
 the foot of the outer slope of the northern face of the fort, 
 from its western end to and around the angle of the northeast 
 bastion, and thence with several breaks in its line en echelon 
 down to the line of high-water mark about two hundred yards 
 from the face of the fort, the stockade being about eight or ten 
 feet in height. 
 
 Pages might be written in description of the hardships 
 and experiences of those years of continuous service on block- 
 ade duty on our coasts during that war; of the nights spent in 
 open boats watching close into the channels of the river en- 
 trances; of the excitements attending chases of blockade- 
 runners by night and day; of the boat expeditions and the 
 engagements along the coast, in the James river and in the 
 Sounds of North Carolina, such as Fyffe's attack on the rebel 
 ironclads at the obstructions in the James river near Fort 
 Darling; Cushing's several r.econnoisances up the Cape Fear 
 river; his engagements within the inlets when commanding 
 the Ellis; his sinking of the Albemarle ; Lamson's gallant work 
 and victory on the Nansemond, and many other incidents 
 of most creditable service, to give details of which as told me 
 at the time by those brave officers would be interesting, as 
 their recitals were made in familiar conversations and not in 
 the dry, formal style of official reports, but these would make 
 this narrative almost interminable. 
 
On one of the trips of Admiral Lee to the blockading fleet 
 off New Inlet in his flagship, the Minnesota, to inspect in 
 person the methods in force to secure a close blockade, I had a 
 most delightful and thrilling experience. 
 
 I was a witness, then, to one of the most admirable exhibi- 
 tions of seamanship ever seen by anyone. I wish I had the 
 pen of a Clark Russell to give it the graphic description it 
 deserves. 
 
 In these days, when steam has superseded the use of sails in 
 the Navy, and armor plates and steel frames have taken the 
 place of wooden hulls, we no longer witness the pictures of the 
 sailing vessels of the days of romance sung by Dibden and 
 described by Marryat. 
 
 Whilst the flagship was on the station a terrific northeast 
 gale one night struck the coast scattering the smaller craft, 
 and the flagship, dragging her anchor, was forced to get under- 
 way and make for an offing. 
 
 The current along shore, running to the southward, was 
 sweeping the old frigate down towards Frying Pan Shoals, 
 and her engines could not give her headway enough against 
 the wind and sea to assure her safety. 
 
 This made it necessary to keep some sail upon the vessel. 
 
 The gale was so violent that she could carry nothing but 
 topsails, and those double-reefed. 
 
 The gundeck ports were closed and almost buried under 
 water as the old frigate heeled over under the blast. The 
 rain in torrents cut us like whip-lashes, and all hands were at 
 their stations. It was an anxious moment. 
 
 Every moment set us nearer and nearer to the shoals, and 
 I was kept running by the Admiral to his cabin chart to note . 
 the depths of the soundings thereon. 
 
 With a report like a gunshot the foretopsail was suddenly 
 
blown out of the bolt ropes into ribbons, and overboard; and 
 it became necessary at once to replace it. 
 
 Lieutenant' Joseph P. Fyffe, our executive officer, had been 
 on deck since the beginning of the gale, and was almost fagged 
 out when this contingency arose. 
 
 The captain, Napoleon B. Harrison, tried to relieve him, as 
 did the fleet captain, Pierce Crosby, and even the Admiral 
 tried to give him aid; but in the shrieking of the wind their 
 voices could not be heard as far as the mainmast. 
 
 Fyffe, fortified by a stiff glass of brandy, ordered for him by 
 the Admiral, resumed his post; and gifted not only with a 
 voice like a trumpet but with the professional skill of the best 
 of the old time seamen, he soon had a new foretopsail bent 
 and carefully and safely sheeted home. The men seemed to 
 know that a master seaman was on deck, and there was never 
 a hitch or moment's delay in fulfilling his orders. 
 
 Fyffe was a man whose vocabulary was rich in choice, ex- 
 pressive, and sometimes unique, expletives; oaths of various 
 degrees of intensity and expression took with him the places 
 of commas, semi-colons and periods, a peculiarity which was 
 fully accounted for by him on one occasion when old Chaplain 
 Salter, in the presence of our mess, ventured to rebuke him 
 for his apparent profanity; and Fyffe instantly retorted with 
 "Stop that, Chaplain. You know that you pray a great deal 
 and that I swear a great deal, but neither of us means any- 
 thing by it." 
 
 Once during that day as I came above hatches from 
 below to report to the Admiral from the chart the depths 
 approaching the line of the shoal, as I leaned up against 
 the gale I heard one old salt remark to another, as they were 
 hauling on the braces, "Bill, I'd a damned sight rather work 
 to the Lieutenant's swearing than I would dance to the singing 
 of those others." 
 
IO 
 
 Fyffe held the deck, without relief or food, until long in the 
 afternoon, when we had fully weathered the tail of that shoal, 
 and he had the old frigate laying to in safety. 
 
 That piece of admirable seamanship, under the eye of the 
 Admiral, together with many acts of gallantry in the face of 
 the enemy in James river, won Fyffe his restoration to the 
 active list ; and he gained the rank of Rear Admiral before 
 he died. The memories of my association with him in 
 service are amongst the most enjoyable of all those cruising 
 days. 
 
 During the last three months of 1864 the efforts to run the 
 blockade became more frequent, and the needs of the Confed- 
 eracy for supplies of arms, ammunition and other stores in- 
 creased very greatly, and caused an apparent concentration 
 of the swiftest blockade-runners from Nassau and Bermuda 
 upon that point. The labors and trials of the blockading 
 vessels were vastly increased by the demand for greater vigil- 
 ance to head off those "runners," and, through storm and fine 
 weather, along the whole coast, from Little River north to Cape 
 Lookout, the watchful patrol was kept up night and day 
 with zeal and devotion by one and all. 
 
 I cannot forbear, in tracing these lines, to express my great 
 admiration for my old commander-in-chief, Rear Admiral 
 S. P. Lee. This is fitting, since a study of him and his work 
 is but a part of my memories of service in his squadron — on 
 his flagship and as his aide. 
 
 From the beginning of his service as Commander of the 
 North Atlantic Blockading Squadron the records show, as to 
 his conduct, unceasing, untiring devotion to duty. 
 
 Through his able subordinates the commanding officers of his 
 greet fleet on the blockade, in the Sounds of North Carolina 
 and in the waters of Virginia, the plans and instructions care- 
 fully studied out by him were most efficiently carried out. 
 
II 
 
 No detail of the management of the vast work of that ser- 
 vice failed of observation at his hands. 
 
 The multiplicity of the matters affecting the blockade, the 
 providing of vessels for every service, of the assignment of the 
 proper officers for every emergency of service in the Sounds 
 and on the coast, the fitting out of expeditions against the bat- 
 teries, forts and ironclads of the enemy, whether in the Sounds, 
 in the James river or off Cape Fear river, all required and 
 received careful consideration and action by him. 
 
 As his aide I saw his surpassing zeal and energy in trans- 
 acting the squadron's business. In his personal inspections 
 of the vessels in the Sounds and on the blockade nothing 
 escaped his earnest attention. His every thought was for 
 the success of the cause of the Union; and sincerely and often 
 did he plan for the closing of Cape Fear river through the co- 
 operation of his fleet and the army. That this was not realized 
 by him was through no fault attributable to him. 
 
 I could but notice that (although no word of complaint 
 was uttered by him) his every act seemed to be made with 
 the extra caution and scrupulous care of one who felt that 
 there was some adverse influence seeking to undermine him 
 with the Department, and so his discharge of his duty was ever 
 beyond criticism. 
 
 Through his repeated orders were secured all the exact in- 
 formation needed to post the Department as to the true con- 
 ditions existing on the approaches to Wilmington, including 
 the number and distribution of the enemy's forces there, the 
 points most accessible and suitable for landing troops, and 
 the depth of the water on the bars to guide an attacking fleet. 
 
 His good work merited the credit of command on the day of 
 final success, but it was not willed that the honor of reducing 
 Fort Fisher should be his. Secretary Welles, having deter- 
 
12 
 
 mined at last to close Cape Fear river, first offered the command 
 of that Squadron to Admiral Farragut, who was then at 
 Mobile, but his ill health compelled him to decline it ; and then 
 Admiral David D. Porter was selected; and in October, 1864, 
 he was assigned to duty as the successor of Admiral Lee. 
 
 The end of the vicissitudes of blockade life was now fast 
 approaching. The capture of Mobile Bay had closed all the 
 inlets to the Confederacy in the Gulf of Mexico, excepting 
 Galveston Bay. The capture of Savannah by General Sher- 
 man, and his march northward toward Columbia, South 
 Carolina, had effectually sealed up Charleston, as a useful port 
 of entry for blockade runners, thus leaving Cape Fear river 
 as the only remaining entrance for supplies for the Confederate 
 armies.'' 
 
 The months of October and November saw assembling in 
 the waters of Hampton Roads a large fleet of war vessels, 
 drawn from all of the other squadrons; and the vessels were 
 busy laying in stores of ordnance supplies for an attack upon 
 Fort Fisher in which the army was to co-operate. 
 
 An immense flotilla of transports -had been gathered there 
 to carry the troops detailed by General Grant for that purpose. 
 
 The great ironclad New Ironsides, the monitors, the frigates 
 and sloops-of-war, and many gunboats, strangers hitherto 
 to those waters, were in the roadstead. 
 
 The vessels of the blockading squadron off Cape Fear river, 
 then numbering twenty-one in all, had been by the Admiral's 
 order assigned on paper to the several divisions of the new 
 fighting fleet, according to size, armament and efficiency; but 
 they remained actually under the command of Captains 
 Glisson and Sands, as divisional commanders, still engaged 
 in closely blockading the New Inlet and Western Bar en- 
 trances to the river. 
 
13 
 
 From the Minnesota, I was, in 1864, transferred for a short 
 time to the Fort Jackson; and when my old friend Lamson, 
 formerly Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Lee, was ordered to 
 command the U. S. S. Gettysburg, I was ordered to duty under 
 him, and saw much active work in chasing and capturing block- 
 ade runners. 
 
 I was in Beaufort Harbor on the Gettysburg when the old 
 Louisiana, which had been altered to the appearance of a 
 blockade-runner, came in and took an out-of-the-way place 
 for anchorage. She had been loaded with bags and barrels 
 of powder aggregating over 200 tons, and fuses and slow 
 matches were placed and wound through these opened barrels 
 and bags in the expectation that the burning fuses would at the 
 proper moment cause an explosion so violent as to disable 
 the fort. 
 
 The intrepid Rhind, who with a small but gallant crew had 
 volunteered for the dangerous task of running the Louisiana 
 into position on the bar near the fort, was in charge. 
 
 The great fleet sailed from Hampton Roads on the 18th 
 of December, and soon reached the offing near Beaufort 
 Harbor. 
 
 The understanding between Admiral Porter and General 
 Butler was that the transports should follow the fleet and 
 await off shore notice that everything was ready for the attack. 
 
 Instead of doing that General Butler and some of his trans- 
 ports proceeded direct to the neighborhood of Fort Fisher 
 with flags all flying, thus notifying the enemy that the move- 
 ment was against that point. 
 
 A gale set in on the 20th, which drove the transports off 
 shore and even disorganized the fleet formation, and delayed 
 the starting of the fleet for the place of rendezvous about 25 
 miles east of Fort Fisher. 
 
14 
 
 On the 2 2d, the lines of the fleet were formed at the appointed 
 place, but the sea was still rough; so the division anchored in 
 line, in about seventeen fathoms of water, to hold their posi- 
 tions ; the smaller craft being detailed to keep near the monitors 
 during the night in case of assistance being needed. 
 
 The rising seas kept the decks of the monitors awash, and 
 trying, indeed, must have been the experiences of their crews 
 below decks. During the night several dragged anchors and 
 signalled for aid, and they had to be held in position by hawsers 
 run from the smaller steamers. 
 
 Our anxiety was relieved when, at dawn on the 23d, one 
 after another of the vessels of the fleet was accounted for and 
 reported safe. 
 
 My captain, Roswell H. Lamson, was selected by the Ad- 
 miral to take charge of the little Wilderness, the swiftest of the 
 steamers present, to accompany the Louisiana on her mission 
 of destruction, and was soon off on that duty. 
 
 When darkness came on the Louisiana and her little escort 
 were seen slowly moving in towards the fort, and hour by 
 hour the fleet awaited the result anxiously. 
 
 How Rhind carried out his dangerous mission has been often 
 told. He and his crew at midnight, having anchored within 
 300 yards of the shore, near the fort, after lighting the slow 
 matches and fuses, escaped in safety to the Wilderness and 
 were brought out to the fleet. At 1.45 A. M. on the 24th the 
 explosion occurred, but was simply a fine piece of pyrotechnics 
 with no good results following. At daylight the fleet of fifty- 
 six vessels in all steamed into the bombardment, and the 
 garrison on the parapets gave us to know that they were ready 
 for action. Butler's transports had not yet reappeared, buf 
 signal was made by the Admiral for the divisions, in order, to 
 move into their assigned positions. 
 
1 5 
 
 In the first division, at the head, steamed the Santiago de 
 Cuba, under Glisson, followed by the Fort Jackson, under 
 Sands. Each vessel moved on in silence until its position 
 was reached, when it anchored and opened fire upon the fort. 
 
 The monitors and the New Ironsides anchored together close 
 in shore, to the northeast of the angle of the fort, and the 
 frigates and sloops-of-war, forming the second division; and 
 the Brooklyn with the gunboats were in line outside of them to 
 the southward. 
 
 So prompt and skilful were the commanding officers of the 
 vessels in handling them that with the first gun from the lead- 
 ing ship it seemed as if a line of fire ran down the whole face of 
 the fleet. The roar of the guns then became incessant, and the 
 flying sand on the fortifications from the "Mound" on the 
 south, to the traverses on the northern face of Fort Fisher, 
 told of the general accuracy and destructiveness of our fire. 
 
 The guns of the enemy were not silent. From the two heavy 
 rifled guns on the "Mound," from the great Armstrong gun, 
 and all the heavy guns along the traverses of the fort, came 
 the shot and shell over and into the line of vessels. 
 
 Now and then a bursting Parrott gun caused dismay in the 
 fleet here and there, but no vessel left the line, and all day 
 the fury of the bombardment was on, and as a spectacle it was 
 simply grand. 
 
 At sunset the transports of General Butler began to appear, 
 but too late for any action then. 
 
 During the night of the 24th December, designated vessels 
 kept up the fire to prevent the enemy from repairing damage 
 done to the batteries, and on Christmas day the bombard- 
 ment was continued. 
 
 Although the little Gettysburg had only one 30-pounder 
 Parrott gun that was efficient at the range, Lamson was per- 
 
]6 
 
 mitted during that day's bombardment to steal into the open- 
 ing between the vessels of the first line and take an occa- 
 sional shot, and so we had the opportunity (similar to that 
 afforded to certain commanders whose vessels were present 
 at the battle off Santiago de Cuba) of claiming that it was 
 our shot and shell which did all the damage that was noted 
 when guns toppled over or flagstaffs were carried away on the 
 fort. 
 
 On the 25th day of December General Butler's transports 
 had all come to anchor, and, aided by the boats from the 
 small steamers, with Commander J. H. Upshur in the A. D. 
 Vance in charge of that task, the landing of the troops began. 
 
 We could see the regiments crossing the neck of land and 
 slowly advancing towards the fort. At nightfall General 
 Butler notified the Admiral that his force could not successfully 
 attack the fort, and that he was going to withdraw. 
 
 Quite a fog set in during the night, and I remember the dis- 
 gust that was expressed throughout the fleet when we 
 saw the next morning as the mist cleared off that the troop- 
 ships were sailing away. We could see no reason for this, as 
 nothing had been seriously done in the way of attack on shore 
 and we were looking to participate in the fight ourselves. 
 
 But General Butler evidently had made up his mind that 
 it was no place for him, as the transports were filled they 
 steamed away north. 
 
 It was not until the 27th, however, that the boats brought 
 off the last of the troops who had remained on shore undis- 
 turbed by the enemy. 
 
 The last of the transports then sailed away for Hampton 
 Roads, leaving the Admiral filled with indignation at the 
 ''fiasco" which had rendered useless all the extensive and ex- 
 pensive preparations that had been made after so much labor 
 and study by General Grant and himself. 
 
i7 
 
 All the vessels not needed for the immediate purposes of 
 blockading were withdrawn to Beaufort and Hampton Roads, 
 where their magazines were refilled at once for service. 
 
 The Admiral and General Grant were soon again in confer- 
 ence, with the result that on the 8th day of January, 1865, 
 Major General A. H. Terry appeared off Beaufort with a fleet 
 of transports; and when the weather permitted they sailed 
 with our reorganized fleet on the 12th of January, reaching 
 the New Inlet entrance on the 13th. 
 
 Again the several divisions took up their positions as on 
 the occasion of the first bombardment, and opened fire on the 
 fortifications. The fourth division of light vessels, again 
 under Upshur, superintended and aided in landing the troops, 
 and by 3 o'clock P. M. 8,000 men, under General Terry, were 
 landed, and a large quantity of stores of all kinds were put on 
 shore by the boats of the " cracker flotilla, " as we called it. 
 
 Whilst the bombardment proceeded, the troops had en- 
 trenched themselves, throwing up a line of earthworks across 
 the neck of land; and had taken possession of the river bank 
 and were advancing south towards the fort. 
 
 Generals Curtis and Ames have given their several de- 
 scriptions of the movements and brilliant work of the troops 
 under their command in the attack upon the fort, and I will 
 confine my narrative to the part taken by the Navy therein. 
 
 Admiral Porter had long matured his plans for co-opera- 
 tion by the Navy in the land assault upon the fort, and from 
 every vessel in the fleet detachments had been made up, and 
 were armed with cutlasses and revolvers in readiness to land 
 and assist the army; the marines and some few sailors only 
 having rifles and carbines. 
 
 The contingent from the Gettysburg was composed of seventy 
 officers and men under her commander, Lieutenant Roswell 
 
i8 
 
 H. Lamson, and I, an Acting Ensign, was next in command. 
 It was close packing in the boats to get us all ashore. 
 
 Early in the forenqon the whole force of sailors, some 1,600 
 in all, and 400 marines, were in their boats and soon made for 
 the shore. The sea was calm and no surf on the beach, which 
 we speedily reached, about a mile and a half above the fort. 
 The sailors were formed into three divisions. A small 
 force of men were detached from each division, and supplied 
 with shovels was at once advanced towards the fort under 
 Flag Lieutenant S. W. Preston, and soon was engaged throw- 
 ing up lines of rifle-pits one after another, from which, as 
 sharpshooters, those armed with carbines, and some of the 
 marines, were expected to clear the enemy from the parapets 
 when the movement forward of the main assaulting party 
 was begun. 
 
 The first division was under the command of Lieutenant 
 Commander Cushman of the Wabash. 
 
 The second division was under the command of Lieutenant 
 Commander James Parker of the Minnesota. To this division 
 the men from the Gettysburg were attached. 
 
 The third division was commanded by Lieutenant Com- 
 mander T. O. Selfridge, commanding the Huron. The 
 marines, about 400 in number, under Captain Dawson, formed 
 a separate division, and were advanced on the right of the 
 brigade of sailors, and occupied the rifle-pits facing the north 
 front of the fort and nearest to the Army. 
 
 The formation of the divisions for the assault was soon com- 
 pleted, and we were awaiting for orders to move. 
 
 After some time Fleet Captain K. R. Breeze appeared, com- 
 ing from a consultation with General Terry, and read to the 
 assembled officers the Admiral's orders under which he as- 
 sumed command. Lieutenant Commander Parker waived 
 his seniority in rank and resumed command of his division. 
 
19 
 
 Detailed instructions from the Admiral, set out in his 
 famous general order, were read to us, directing us to "board 
 the fort with a rush," and enjoining upon us that, if after we 
 had captured the fort we "were fired upon from the ' Mound ' 
 every three men were to take a prisoner and throw him over to 
 the other side of the walls" towards his friends to receive 
 their fire. 
 
 The cool assumptions as to the certainty of our success with 
 cutlasses and revolvers against the Enfield rifles of an enemy 
 about equalling our own force in numbers and protected by 
 such heavy earthworks, and its delightful (if absurd) con- 
 fidence in our physical powers as animated "catapults," 
 caused a ripple of audible smiles to run down our ranks, and 
 cheered us up considerably for the coming task of the "forlorn 
 hope" upon which we were about to enter. 
 
 Shortly after 3 o'clock P.M. the divisions were ordered to 
 move upon the fort, and, as quickly as we could march over 
 the fine dry sand, we passed the line of rifle-pits that had been 
 thrown up and from which the marines had moved on. 
 
 Captain Breeze having determined to make the assault upon 
 the northeast bastion ordered the division, as they passed the 
 rifle-pits, to move by the left flank down to the beach, on the 
 damp, compact surface of which, the tide having fallen, it 
 was comparatively easy to march. 
 
 As we moved down parallel to the north face of the fort, 
 the enemy, from a light Whitworth gun emplaced in an earth- 
 work, covering a sally-port running through the -works on the 
 level of the palisades about the middle of that face, opened 
 fire upon us, but overshot every time, merely causing us to 
 quicken our movement towards the beach. 
 
 Turning south the assaulting column at quickstep went on 
 until within about five hundred yards of the fort, when we were 
 
20 
 
 ordered to lie down on the slope of the beach below the line of 
 rifle fire being poured into us from the fort, to rest preparatory 
 to the final charge. 
 
 Overhead went the shot and shell etween the fort and fleet, 
 occasional short fuses causing premature explosions of shells, 
 whose fragments wounded numbers of our men. 
 
 The roar of the bombardment was continuous and terrific, 
 and we could see that the heavy rain of shells from the vessels 
 had cleared the parapet of its defenders. 
 
 Finally about 3.30 P.M. a shrill whistle from the flagship 
 gave the signal responded to by similar whistles throughout 
 the fleet, and stopped the fire of every vessel except such as 
 could direct their guns upon the southern line of batteries be- 
 yond the main fort. 
 
 In an instant the order to advance was given by Captain 
 Breeze, and the divisions, in their order, arose with cheers, 
 each boat's crew unfurling its flag, and moved on the run 
 down the beach. 
 
 I recall, as though it were yesterday, the gallant Parker's 
 appearance, wearing a long loose talma overcoat, as on the 
 right flank of our division nearest the enemy he ran forward 
 ever in the front, the cape of his coat flapping out like the 
 wings of a bat, presenting an appearance that amused us 
 even at a time like that. 
 
 As we passed the line of marines in the rifle-pits and behind 
 the sand hills Parker ordered them to fall in with the assault- 
 ing party, which they did. 
 
 The enemy, warned by the whistles of the fleet, realized that 
 the crucial moment was at hand, and soon the whole sea front 
 of the main fort was swarming with men, who poured a terrific 
 and continuous hail of bullets into our ranks as we drew 
 nearer every moment. The men fell like ten-pins along our line 
 
21 
 
 A seaman running just at my side dropped with a bullet 
 just back of his ear, and so saved me; another to my left fell 
 with a shriek that he was killed. I tore open his shirt and 
 found but a skin scratch making a line across his chest, the 
 sting of which had frightened him, but on my assurance that 
 he was all right he soon was on the run forward with us. 
 
 The two days' firing from the fleet had here and there torn 
 gaps in the palisades which led to the beach, and as the front 
 of the first division charging up the hard beach below the high- 
 water mark reached the end of the palisades they shrank back 
 from the withering fire and turned up on the north side of the 
 palisades toward the fort. 
 
 Through one of these gaps in the palisades, about one hun- 
 dred and fifty yards from the face of the fort, young Acting 
 Ensign Robley D. Evans, of the Powhatan, already wounded 
 in one leg, gallantly advanced, but instantly fell under the 
 terrific hail of bullets, having his leg again pierced above the 
 knee entirely disabling him. 
 
 As the third division charged up Evans saw his classmate, 
 Ensign James H. Sands, of the Shenandoah , coming up on the 
 run, and called out to him to come to his aid. Sands instantly 
 sprang through the palisades to his side, and, aided by a sailor 
 who had joined him, in the face of that hail of bullets poured 
 on them by the enemy, dropped down, and, using silk hand- 
 kerchiefs as tourniquets, soon stopped the loss of blood and 
 saved his life. 
 
 Sands ordered the sailor not to leave the side of Evans until 
 he could see him in a safe place, and then going back through 
 the palisades struggled through the mass of seamen until he 
 rejoined his own men some sixty yards nearer to the fort. 
 
 That sailor evidently performed his duty nobly and faith- 
 fully, for as he helped Evans to the rear he was himself wounded 
 
22 
 
 and fell by his side, where they were both found later near the 
 beach over one hundred and fifty yards from the fort by Act- 
 ing Ensign Smalley of the Pequot and his men, who, aided by 
 Lieutenant John R. Bartlett, of the Susquehanna (who, having 
 been at the very front of the assaulting party, was coming up 
 from the stockade) carried Evans up the beach to the tem- 
 porary field hospital, where he received the attention that 
 saved his leg, Bartlett aiding the surgeon in cutting Evans' 
 trousers to get at his wounds which they dressed. 
 
 With the Gettysburg's men Lieutenant Lamson and his 
 officers had reached a point about seventy yards from the fort, 
 when their advance was checked by the pack of sailors ahead 
 of them, and all laid down flat upon the sand close to the 
 palisades. 
 
 Those gallant Lieutenants, B. H. Porter, Flag Lieutenant, 
 and S. W. Preston, commanding the Malvern, who as class- 
 mates had graduated from the Naval Academy, who had to- 
 gether been captured by the enemy in the Harbor of Charles- 
 ton, and who' had side by side been in the Confederate prison 
 at Columbia, S. C, from which they had not long before been 
 released, were killed near each other in the very 1 forefront of 
 the assaulting party. 
 
 As the officers and men at the head of the column reached 
 the breach in the palisades close up to the salient angle of the 
 fort, Ensign George T. Davis, of the Wabash, Master's Mates 
 A. H. Aldrich, of the Ticonderoga, and J. M. Simms, of the 
 Minnesota, and several men, charged through and attempted 
 to mount the slope of the bastion. All were instantly shot 
 down, except Davis, when Parker calling to them to get back 
 of the palisades they did so as quickly as they could, but left 
 one seamen dead just beyond the opening. 
 
 The dry sand of the beach at that point had been by wind 
 
23 
 
 and storm drifted and driven in hillocks more or less shallow 
 like waves, and was heaped up compactly against this angle 
 of the palisades. 
 
 These hillocks or dunes had been torn and holes here and 
 there cut into them by the bursting shells from the fleet, 
 and into them, additionally protected by the high palisades, 
 crept the officers and men as fast as they could. 
 
 The great mass of the sailors, back of them, and out of wind, 
 lay flat on the sand, in the open, receiving the uninterrupted 
 fire Of the enemy from the parapet, the bullets every moment 
 adding to the dead and wounded. 
 
 Captain Breeze, tiring of this slaughter, jumped to his feet /• 
 exclaiming "Rise men and charge!" and I well remember his 
 erect form and heroic bearing as he stood facing the enemy, 
 regardless of the hail of bullets around him. 
 
 Some of the men near the beach in the more exposed posi- 
 tions started to the rear. Again Breeze sang out, "Charge! 
 Don't retreat!" 
 
 I was close to the palisades, and was rising up to obey him 
 when I heard some one off to my right sing out " What does he 
 say? Is it to retreat?" The last word "retreat" was re- 
 peated from different points at once, when, misled thereby, 
 the mass of men rose like a covey of partridges, and as fast as 
 their legs could take them fled down the beach, followed by 
 the grape and canister from the heavy guns on the " Mound " 
 which had reopened upon our retreating column. 
 
 Lamson had gone on a dozen yards ahead of me in the first 
 charge and had fallen wounded severely. Left in command 
 of the Gettysburg's contingent of men, and seeing that further 
 advance was hopeless, I got my men on their feet and keeping 
 them together we followed the other retreating sailors and 
 marines. 
 
24 
 
 Every wounded man we reached was picked up by my men, 
 and we carried off many of them to the rear. One poor fellow 
 shot through the stomach three of my men and I put upon a 
 piece of board we found on the beach and carried to the field 
 hospital, where I was afterwards informed he died. 
 
 At that point I got my men together and halted, and soon 
 gathered in about fifty or sixty men and marched back towards 
 the fort to the relief of those who, keeping close to the shelter 
 of the palisades, could not be reached by the riflemen on 
 the parapet. 
 
 We soon got under fire again, when, with shovels that the 
 men had picked up, we began throwing up sand along the 
 crest of the high-water mark, and so working along were ad- 
 vancing the head of our line. 
 
 We soon reached a point about two hundred yards from the 
 fort, and found there other men under Ensign J. H. Sands and 
 Carlisle P. Porter, the son and secretary of the Admiral, who 
 had turned back before us on the same mission, and we joined 
 forces. Lieutenant Woodward of the Minnesota also joined us 
 afterwards. Darkness was fast coming on when Lieutenant 
 W. B. Cushing joined us, and stating that he had just come from 
 General Terry, whose men had effected a lodgment in the 
 traverses on the western end of the fortifications, and who had 
 requested him to have the sailors relieve the Engineer brigade 
 which held the line of earthworks across the neck, that they 
 might reinforce the troops then in sharp engagement with the 
 enemy in the fort. 
 
 We desired to go on to the fort, but claiming his right as our 
 senior officer, Cushing directed us to carry out the desires of 
 General Terry, saying that he would report our good work to 
 the Admiral. 
 
 We formed our men in companies, and with our boat flags 
 
/■ 
 
 25 
 
 flying, marched slowly up the beach t6 the army entrench- 
 ments, where, relieving the Engineer brigade, we were assigned 
 to duty, mounting our guards along the works to warn us of 
 any advance of the forces of General Hoke, which had been 
 reported as moving down from Wilmington. 
 
 The reaction from the tension and exertion of our day's 
 fatiguing and exciting engagement in the assault found us as 
 hungry as starved bears. I shall never forget the taste of a 
 piece of bacon I found in the sand, thrown away by some 
 fastidious soldier. I scraped the sand from it and let it sizzle 
 awhile in the camp-fire around which we were keeping watch, 
 and on a piece of hard tack it was as palatable a morsel as an)' 
 that I have ever tasted since^then. 
 
 At ten o'clock a rocket told us of the final and complete 
 success of the army and that the vast fortifications were ours; 
 and our cheers at the victory fairly woke the echoes, whilst 
 rockets from the fleet and the noise of steam whistles kept up 
 the jubilations for hours. 
 
 We kept our vigils all night, however, to guard against any 
 attempt of the rebel forces from Wilmington, but no demon- 
 stration was made. 
 
 At 5 o'clock on the morning of January 16, 1865, I cele- 
 brated my birthday by slipping off from my men and going 
 back over the line of our charge the day before up to the 
 palisades. Reaching the ground where our last charge was 
 made, I found it covered with the bodies of the dead, the 
 wounded having been carried off the night before. Passing 
 through the breach in the palisades near the salient of the fort 
 I found stretched out, with his head towards the fort, the body 
 of the brave sailor who died nearest the enemy on that charge. 
 
 Mounting the slope, which had been torn and beaten out of 
 shape by the shells hurled upon it from the fleet, I descended 
 
26 
 
 into the fort, and went from casemate to casemate which were 
 filled with dead and wounded. Out in the open, where could 
 be seen the burned frames of the barracks and quarters which 
 had been fired by the shells from the fleet, I saw numbers of 
 dead. 
 
 I went the length of the parapet from traverse to traverse 
 examining the disabled and dismounted guns on the north face 
 of the fort, and over the scene of the deadly hand-to-hand fight- 
 ing of the army inside the works, where Curtis and Penne- 
 packer had fallen. On the traverses were the bodies of the 
 fallen, showing how desperately but vainly the gallant Con- 
 federates under Lamb and Whiting had defended the works. 
 
 Groups of soldiers were making themselves comfortable 
 around fires they had started near the magazines. I went on 
 down to near the river front to the sally-port where our gallant 
 soldiers under Am.es, Pennepacker and Curtis had won their 
 entrance to the works. 
 
 Returning, I went south along the batteries on the sea front 
 down to the great " Mound " examining the guns on the line. 
 
 The great 1 50-pounder Armstrong rifled gun was intact, and 
 I made a sketch of it, as well as of the " Mound." 
 
 My sketch book I found in the Navy Department archives 
 about a year ago, it having been turned over shortly after that 
 war to some official in the Department by my father, Admiral 
 Sands. 
 
 My sketch of the "Mound" battery was made the frontis- 
 piece to Volume XII of the Naval War Records. 
 
 Turning back I went into the casement under the north- 
 east bastion of the fort where I found a magnetic battery in 
 place, connected with wires leading out through the cotton 
 sand bags. 
 
 I ran outside and down the slope, where I soon found an up- 
 turned end of a rope of wires wrapped in oiled linen. 
 
27 
 
 The ends of the wires were welded together by the cutting 
 blow of a shell which had exploded, and cut it through, thus 
 saving scores of lives, for the wires ran to several large tor- 
 pedoes which had been buried in the sand over which we had 
 been massed. I cut off a piece of this wire, and still retain it 
 as a souvenir, and once showed it to Colonel Lamb who had 
 commanded the fort at the time. He recognized it, having 
 installed the plant, and he said that this explained why his 
 orders, given at the proper moment to fire the torpedoes, had 
 not been obeyed. He said that thinking that the man in charge 
 had disobeyed his order he had directed that he should be 
 shot, but that when the man found that the wires would not 
 work he had run away. 
 
 I picked up several other mementoes, grape and canister, as 
 I returned down the beach, and when about a mile from the 
 fort was met by an officer just landed with orders for me to 
 return to the Gettysburg to which my Captain, Lamson, had 
 been carried severely wounded. 
 
 I went on board and had scarcely gone below deck when the 
 terrific explosion of the magazine of the fort occurred, the 
 shock of which could be felt even on the water. Running on 
 deck I saw the great pall of smoke spreading umbrella-like 
 over the fort. 
 
 Two of the Gettysburg s officers, Acting Ensign Laighton and 
 Assistant Paymaster Gillette, were killed by the explosion, 
 having, after leaving me at the boat on landing, gone direct to 
 the parapet of the fort, reaching its face opposite the magazine 
 at the instant of the explosion. 
 
 Ten out of the seventy of the Gettysburg's men in the assault 
 were killed or wounded. 
 
 In the afternoon Acting Master Charles Dahlgren, execu- 
 tive officer of our vessel, went ashore and visited the Con- 
 
28 
 
 federate wounded. He was complimenting Colonel Lamb on 
 his gallant defense of the fort when an army officer present said 
 "Colonel, we gave you hell, did we not?'" To which Lamb 
 replied, " If we had not been misled by the sailors and marines 
 into believing that theirs was the main attack of the com- 
 bined Army and Naval forces, we would have given you Army 
 fellows hell." 
 
 And so it was. In that belief, on seeing our men massed and 
 charging, Colonel Lamb had called all his forces to the par pet 
 of the sea front, leaving only about 148 men guarding the 
 sally-port near the river, and concentrated his rifle fire upon 
 our defenseless sailors, who were slaughtered like sheep; and 
 when he discovered his mistake and marshalled his men 
 against the Federal troops, already inside of the fort, he was 
 too late for anything but a stubborn, desperate and useless 
 resistance to our victorious army. 
 
 But the sacrifice of those gallant sailors from our fleet had 
 accomplished its good end, and, when the troops had over- 
 whelmed the handful of rebels on the west, they met and out- 
 fought the men Lamb brought up against them and soon were 
 in possession of the traverses and earthworks within the main 
 fort, and thence fought on until the battle was won. 
 
 That the defense should have so stubbornly continued from 
 4.30 P. M. to 10 o'clock that night before victory became com- 
 plete made us proud of the men who had fought against us, 
 for their courage and daring was that of Americans, although 
 their cause was a bad one. 
 
 The gallantry of the Confederates there was not only shown 
 in that hand-to-hand fight with the Army on the parapet. 
 Throughout the terrific bombardment their guns were fought 
 with skill, until one by one they were disabled; the turrets 
 and decks of the monitors bore witness to the rebels cool, 
 
29 
 
 accurate aim; one of them, the Canonicus, having been struck 
 thirty-six times in the fight, whilst many other vessels bore 
 the marks of shot and shell. 
 
 To have so fought under the storm of shell from fortv-four 
 vessels was a grand test of courage, even for veterans. 
 
 The next day the smaller vessels passed in over the bar into 
 the river. Fort Caswell was blown up by its garrison, and the 
 batteries on Zeek's and Smith's Islands were destroyed and 
 abandoned, thus putting us in complete control of the two 
 entrances to the river. 
 
 Cushing set the range signal lights, and two runners, the 
 Stag and the Charlotte, were captured the first night, and the 
 Blenheim on the third night. They had anchored, and were 
 jubilating on the happy ending of their trip, when our board- 
 ing officers astounded them by warm welcomes to hospitalities 
 as our prisoners. 
 
 I was informed the next day after the victory that Cushing 
 had kept his promises to us on the beach, having gone at once 
 to the Flagship Malvern, where he detailed to the Admiral 
 what he had seen of our services ashore in the assault, and at 
 the same time he congratulated my father, who was present, 
 on the safety of his sons. 
 
 Two days afterwards the Admiral ordered me to examina- 
 tion for promotion before a board of which Lieut. John Weid- 
 man was the president, and, being favorably reported upon, 
 I received my promotion to the rank of Acting Master within 
 ten days thereafter upon reaching the Norfolk Navy Yard. 
 
 I had been placed in temporary command of the Gettysburg, 
 and carried north as passengers Commodore John Rodgers and 
 Brigadier General Barnard, who bore to the Secretaries of 
 Navy and War the exact details of our glorious victory. 
 
 The capture of Fort Fisher ended blockade-running on the 
 
3o 
 
 Atlantic Coast. In that crowning combat of the Navy's work 
 in that war were engaged a list of officers whose abilities and 
 brilliant services are cherished memories of the service. 
 
 There were Thatcher. Radford, Schenck, Gordon, Glisson, 
 Sands, Alden, Almy, Truxton, Ramsay, Self ridge, Temple 
 Phelps, Ridgeley, Clitz Weaver, Belknap and Sicard; all of 
 whom I have known throughout their subsequent careers in 
 the Navy, which carried them to high rank and honors. 
 
 The junior officers in the regular line who served there have 
 all won distinction since, and to-day the survivors of them are 
 month by month stepping up into the grade of Rear Admirals, 
 well qualified by their careers to maintain the prestige of their 
 service in honor and glory. 
 
 Were I to attempt to enumerate all the gallant officers of the 
 Volunteer Navy who, whether on shipboard or in the land 
 assault upon that fort, braved death and wounds, and won 
 commendation for their courage and daring and efficiency, this 
 narrative would become too lengthy. 
 
 They were men whose occupations in private life were 
 peaceful; but in that time of their country's need they had 
 responded nobly. They filled the vessels of every fleet, and 
 having served faithfully (many with great deserts for specially 
 distinguished services) they, at the ending of the war, retired 
 quietly from service with their country's grateful thanks for 
 their duty well done. 
 

 4 w^> 
 
 PLAN 
 
 second'Xttack 
 fort fisher 
 Jan.13,14,15,1865. 
 
 Showing the Position of Vessels 
 
 J[4 ... , ... l..-J : J^„ ..-'■ 
 
 jUll Bg»jk IMg""' '2=3 
 
. it