For almost half a mile north of the landmass, the peninsula had been clear of trees. They did this to get a clear field of fire. Running correspondent to the landface from the river to the ocean was a newly erected wall fence made of nine-foot-high sharpened pine logs. Halfway down the landface, a tunnel “sally port” cut through the mound wall so that field artillery could be transported from bombproof land to an elevated sally-port gun battery during an enemy attack. On the riverside of the landface, where a narrow wooden bridge spanned a patch of swampland, the sandy road from Wilmington entered through a gate in the wall. The gate had no doors; instead, it was safely ensconced with sandbags and guarded carefully by a section of field artillery.

On January 15th, 1865, almost 150 years ago, a soldier spotted seven Union blockade-runners. Colonel William Lamb was alerted and the word of battle spread quickly throughout the fort. Soldiers suited up and the garrison team prepped for war. The seven blockade-runners were the U.S.S. Colorado, U.S.S. Minnesota, U.S.S. Wabash, U.S.S. Mohican, U.S.S. Susquehanna, U.S.S. Louisiana, and the U.S.S. New Ironsides. The New Ironsides was the first ship to fire. The Louisiana had the original mission to destroy Fort Fisher, and loaded with 200 TONS of highly explosive gunpowder, could have blown up the entire line of Outerbanks.

isher was nothing to brag about, full of challenges and missions. Food was often in short supply, with the drinking water undrinkable. With a fever spreading throughout the fort, many soldiers worried if they would survive through the summer.

The Veterans Association of Fort Fisher tried presenting a bill to preserve the grand fort for preservation, but was soon swallowed up in the other, many hundreds of bills going through Washington D.C. and the White House at the time. Soon afterwards, Army Engineers beg

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