 the second battle of fort fisher was an assault by the union army, navy and marine corps against fort fisher, outside wilmington, north carolina, near the end of the american civil war. sometimes referred to as the "gibraltar of the south" and the last major coastal stronghold of the confederacy, fort fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war, providing a port for blockade runners supplying the army of northern virginia.kennedy, p. 402. ==background== wilmington was the last major port open to the confederacy on the atlantic seacoast. ships leaving wilmington via the cape fear river and setting sail for the bahamas, bermuda or nova scotia to trade cotton and tobacco for needed supplies from the british were protected by the fort.gragg, p. 4. based on the design of the malakoff redoubt in sevastopol, ukraine, fort fisher was constructed mostly of earth and sand. this made absorbing the pounding of heavy fire from union ships more effective than older fortifications constructed of mortar and bricks. twenty-two guns faced the ocean, while twenty-five faced the land. the sea face guns were mounted on  batteries with larger,  batteries at the southern end of the fort. underground passageways and bombproof rooms existed below the giant earthen mounds of the fort.chaitan, p. 158. the fortifications kept union ships from attacking the port of wilmington and the cape fear river. on december 24, 1864, union forces under major general benjamin f. butler and rear admiral david d. porter launch
1865_in_North_Carolina Battles_of_the_Eastern_Theater_of_the_American_Civil_War Conflicts_in_1865 Naval_battles_of_the_American_Civil_War New_Hanover_County,_North_Carolina North_Carolina_in_the_American_Civil_War Union_victories_of_the_American_Civil_War United_States_Marine_Corps_in_the_18th_and_19th_centuries Wilmington_Campaign