The Last Stronghold: The Campaign for Fort Fisher

by McCaslin, Richard B.

• ISBN13: 9781893114302
• ISBN10: 1893114309
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr

Summary

The huge earthen mounds silhouetted in the darkness of Southern nights near Wilmington, North Carolina, were signs of safety for Rebel ship captains and symbols of defiance to their Federal counterparts. These earthworks, the gun emplacements of Fort Fisher, embodied the hopes of the South and stood as a pillar of sovereignty to the beleaguered nation.

During the American Civil War, the independence of the Confederacy would hinge upon its ability to exist as a sovereign nation in the world. Part of this identity came from its continued connection to European goods by eluding the Federal blockade of its coast. The busy port of Wilmington was a key city in maintaining this agenda and Fort Fisher its able defender. By late 1864, this city and the traffic it engendered had become an important target for Federal military planners as it had become the primary haven for blockade-runners in the eastern Confederacy. Wilmington also served as the last major link for the eastern Confederate armies to the weapons merchants of Europe and the world.

This distinction, whi