On January 13, 1865, after a three-day bombardment during which Admiral David Porter’s navy fired approximately 20,000 artillery rounds at Fort Fisher, eight thousand troops under General Alfred Terry landed on a narrow flat north of the fort. Terry’s troops dug in, expecting resistance from some 6000 Confederates from nearby Wilmington under Braxton Bragg. Bragg, however, elected not to come to the assistance of Fort Fisher, despite appeals by both Fisher’s commander Colonel William Lamb and General W. H. C. Whiting who remained at Fort Fisher. On the 15th Union forces rushed Fort Fisher and by that evening forced the capitulation of 1900 Confederate defenders, including Lamb and Whiting. With Bragg’s Wilmington troops not engaging the attacking Union force, Fort Fisher was doomed to fall to Terry’s Union attackers.
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.