The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-07 00:00:00

THE CONFEDERATE STATES.

THE FIRST BOMBARDMENT OF WILMINGTON.
(From the Times' Special Correspondent)
WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA,
Dec. 27, 1864.
Those of your readers who take interest in Ame-
rican affairs have long been aware of the alleged
importance to the Confederates of the retention of
Wilmington. In spite of much pretended mystery
In Richmond about the incomings and outgoings of
blockade-defying vessels connected with this port,
I have reason to know that the fullest and most
accurate information is week after week in the pos-
session of Mr. Lincoln and of his navy about every
Vessel which leaves or enters
Wilmington, about the
names and circumstances of every English or Con-
federate merchant or company connected with
blockade-running ventures, and about the senti-
ments which prevail in the streets of this filthy little
entrepa In regard to the tone and sentiment of
most of the population which has been attracted to
Wilmington as vultures to the carcase it is not ne-
cessary for me now to say more than that it is
widely different from that which animates General
Lee and his noble army. But I may be permitted to
express a passing opinion that if the abundant in-
ternal resources of the Confederacy were available
wherever they are wanted—in other words, if the
railroad transportation between Georgia and Vir-
ginia was as ample and well regulated as between
Illinois and Washington—it would be rather a bles-
sing than otherwise to the Confederates if the port
of Wilmington were shortly closed. So long as the
war continues there will be a demand for muskets,
nitre, medicines, blankets, army clothing, and shoes,
notwithstanding the abundant introduction of
those articles which has already taken place ; but
it is doubtful whether a sufficient supply could
not be sucked in through the numberless creeks
and rivers which intersect the 3,000 or 4,000
miles of seacoast between the Rio Grande and
Chesapeake Bay. These rivers are now becom-
ing:well known to the blockade-running captains,
and, come what may, whether Wilmington or
Charleston fall or not, it is absurd to think that the
coast of Secessia can ever be hermetically sealed.
But in the existing decline of Confederate virtue,
and under the painfulness and weary exhaustion of
this strife, could the Confederates stand the moral
discouragement entailed by the loss of Wilmington?
Your readers may answer the question for them-
- selves, but if Confederate virtue and stanchness,
like that of General Lee, were equal to the shock, I
believe that before six months had passed it would
be found in a dozen ways that the loss of Wilming-
ton was a blessing in disguise.
It is necessary I should premise that the little
town of Wilmington lies on the east bank of the
Cape Fear river, which, running from north to
south, debouches into the sea 22 miles below the
town. Opposite the mouth of the river lies Smith's
Island, shaped in the form of an acute-angled tri-
angle, with the apex pointing out to sea. The river
being about two miles wide at its mouth, forces its
way to sea through two channels, one to the east
and the other to the west of Smith's Island, of
which the easier and more frequented channel is
called the New Inlet, whereas the other is known
by the name of the Western Bar. Smith's Is-
land is Surrounded by dangerous shoals and reefs,
and the stations occupied by the Federal vessels
-which endeavour to blockade these two channels
are more than forty miles apart. The consequent
difficulty of closing the mouths of the Cape Fear
river is well pointed out in Mr. Welles's recent re-
port to the Washington Congress. Add to this that
the North Carolina coast is lashed, especially in
winter, by one of the most capricious and boisterous
of seas, and by a surf which, under the impulse of a
south-east wind, is scarcely inferior in fury to that
which has made the coast of Madras a terror to
navigators.
The attack of the 24th and 25th inst. was directed
only against the works which protected the new inlet.
Your readers must understand that the tongue of
land between the east bank of the Cape Fear river
during the last 30 miles of the course and the sea is
in the shape of the letter V. The new inlet channel
runs for several miles parallel to the coast, and its
last five miles are protected by Confederate bat-
teries scattered along the beach, and which termi-
nate at the latter point of the V in a large work
called Fort Fisher. This work, which is of an
irregular shape, and which was commenced before
'General Whiting took charge of the defences of
Wilmington, consists strictly of three distinct com-
partments. First, upon the river—that is to say, at
the lower end of the left stroke of the V, stands a
strong naval battery called Fort Buchanan, named
after the distinguished Confederate- admiral of
Merrimac and -Mobile celebrity. Secondly, at the
point of the V stands a pyramidal mound, a mo-
nument of the energy and persistency of Colonel
Lamb, who has long been in command of Fort
Eisher. The mound in question was commenced in
1862 by Colonel Lamb upon a bare and exposed
spit of sand, and was long regarded as such a hope-
less undertaking that it went by the name of Lamb's
Folly. But gradually, and little by little, chiefly
by the slow agency of spade labour, the mound
crept upwards until it had attained an elevation of
60 feet. Its sides are knit together and clothed by
the long sea grass which grows on this coast, and
upon the summit, in addition to two heavy guns, is
placed the Fresnel light, which is such a guide and
assistance to incoming vessels. Thirdly, comes Fort
Fisher proper, named after a North Carolina colonel
killed at the battle of Bull Run. Its sea face coin-
mencesabout a quarter of a mile from Lamb's
Mound, and running upwards for nearly half a mile
alonk - the right stroke of the V connects with a long
curtain which stretches across from the sea to the
river, and which runs at right angles to the sea face
of the fort. Few works of more interest to the
military engineer than this scientific row of sand-
hills have ever been constructed, nor can it be
doubted that Fort Fisher reflects the highest credit
upon the ability of General Whiting, its constructor.
The platforms upon which the 50 guns of Fort
Fisher are mounted stands at an elevation of about
40ft. above the beach ; but at the end of the sea
face, which is nearest to Lamb's Mound, there is a
Columbiad battery, at a lower elevation, in which,
during the bombardment, the men suffered more
heavily than in any other portion of the work.
Each gun is protected and divided from its neigh-
bour by a lofty sand traverse, and under each tra-
verse is alternately a bombproof (or shelter-cham-
ber for part of the garrison) and a magazine.
Through these traverses runs a continuous covered
passage. The whole work involves an immense
expenditure of labour, and evinces an amount of
energy highly creditable its
to artificers.
Upon the evening of the 19th the inhabitants of
Wilmington were startled by the tidings that a huge
Yankee flotilla, variously estimated at from 50 to
150 sail, was off the coast, and apparently medita-
ting mischief. The excitement was scarcely less
feverish than on the occasion when there was a cry
of the Spanish Armada as being off the Cornish
coast—a cry which roughly interrupted the memo-
rable game of bowls in which Drake and Hawkins
and Frobisher were e onga'.ed on the Hoe at Ply-
atouth.
-o longer by
to headland, but, beacon light from headland
upon the lightning breath of elec-
tricity the news
told the great alnvdas wafted to Richmond, which
grave soldier who has so long
barred its entrance
against the Federals that his
flank was menaced.
tacTickly respondin-
challenge, Gen. Lee de
mergena body of troops amply
g to the
sufficient to meet the e
but such was the
maladministration of the railrocady',
over the
Grteanilsyborough,
48 miles which divide Danville fromeB
ttiat, but for a providential incident, the troops sent
sthio2uld
to cover the land approach to Fort Fisher
have been too late. Upon the night of Er..
and during the whole of the 21st a violent gale
in from the north-west. It may be conceived le
such a composite flotilla of transports, gunboat,,
ironclads, frigates, sloops of war, and ferry boats as
the Federals had at sea must have suffered cruelly,
and there are stories here of a regiment of United
States' regulars, of part of a negro brigade, and of
many hundred horses having been lost; but your
readers will have gathered from the New York
press a nearer approach to truth than the idle
speculations of the North Carolinians. The storm
delayed the attack upon Fort Fisher until the 24th,

and it was not until the evening of the 25th that
the beach to the north of Fort Fisher was trodden
by the foot of a Federal soldier. But before that
time enough troops were at hand to protect the
town of Wilmington from a land attack, or to in-
terfere with the Federals in the event of their at-
tempting to stretch across the tongue of land be-
tween the river and the sea, and to cut -off Fort
Fisher and its dependencies.

Recovering as best they might from the rough
handling of the sea, and availing themselves of the
bright, cold, and clear weather which followed the
storm of the 21st, the Federals stood in upon the
morning of the 24th, and formed a lunette or cres-
cent of ships, extending for about three miles, and
stretching from the wreck of the Modern Greece in
front of the land face of Fort Fisher to Smith's
Island, until the fire of the last ship on the left of
the Yankee squadron swept the " ramp," or sloping
tramway which ascends to the rear of Lamb's Mound.
Upon the extreme right horn of the Federal half-
moon lay the monitors, four in number, distant from
1,800 to 2,000 yards from the land face of Fort
Fisher, and firing right into the embrasures of the
guns from a direction such as to render the traverses
of no effect. It may be remarked that the heaviest
guns which Fort Fisher mounts are upon its sea
face. The guns which responded to the monitors
were too small in calibre to be of any avail against
their iron ribs. In the centre, and opposite to the
sea face of the fort, lay at a distance of nearly two
miles the large frigates, such as the Colorado and
the Wabash, one of them carrying the flag of Admi-
ral Porter. The left horn was occupied by sloops
of war, by some frigates, and by crafts of divers
kinds, carrying guns which throw shot of every
conceivable shape and calibre, from the 15-inch
shell of the monitors to the 3-pound shell of the
lightest field gun. Behind the ships of war lay
the transports, ready to disembark their living
cargoes and to throw them against a fort in which,
after two days of unprecedented bombardment,
it was calculated that there would be little left ex-
cept dead, wounded, or panic-stricken men. At
about noon of the 24th the lunette of Federal ships
was arrayed ; and never since the 20th of July,
1588, when Lord Howard of Effingham first came
in sight of the Spanish Armada, stretching in a
crescent of seven miles from horn to horn, did a
" navy more irresistible and disdaining prevention "
(to borrow the words of Sir Francis Drake) ride the
waves. Conunencing shortly after noon, there burst
simultaneously upon a given signal from the throats
of hundreds of guns such a storm of shells as has
never before been rained upon any fort or work of
human construction. It was in vain that General
Whiting or Colonel Lamb attempted to make an
accurate calculation how many guns were thundering
at the fort, how many jets of flame issued from
the infuriated ships, or how many shells were dis-
charged in each minute. Suffice it to say that
the reports of the artillery, usually as distinct as
the strokes of a bell, swelled up to heaven in a dia-
pason as continuous and uninterrupted as the roar
of Niagara ; and that three miles of the horizon
were checkered with puffs or wreaths of white
smoke, which showed against the sky as though
Jupiter was pelting the earth with gigantic snow-
balls, For five weary hours upon the 24th the iron
hailstorm, without one instant's cessation, de-
scended upon or around the fort, tore great rents
in the palisades which protect the land face, set fire
to the wooden quarters of the garrison, swept away
every vestige of flag or flagstaff, howled above
Lamb's Mound without injuring a hair of the head
of its defenders, scattered iron splinters broadcast
over the beach, bored great holes and chasms into
the sides of the mound, the slopes of the fort, and
the barren waste Of sand that surround them, and
occasionally, flying wildly inwards, lashed the water
of the Cape Fear River into lofty columns of spray.
From 5 in the afternoon of the 24th until about 10
in the morning of Christmas-day there was a lull in
the firing, followed by its resumption for seven
hours with unabated fury and ferocity upon the
latter day. The burning buildings in the interior
of the fort, when darkness closed in, cast a lurid
glare over the scene, as the men wild with excite-
ment, but calm and pale with set teeth, issued from
the bomb proofs, and looked in wonder at their
comrades, to see so many unwounded survivors
after a bombardment such as mortal ear never heard
before, and of which the reality seemed, even now,
but an unsubstantial dream.

What, it will be asked, was the damage effected
by the tons upon tons of iron which now lie buried
in the sand of North Carolina ? Briefly summed up,
two or three guns were dismounted, three men were
killed, and 55 wounded. As for the damage done
to the mounds of sand which constitute Fort
Fisher, it was scarcely visible yestirday, and
will be wholly invisible within a week from this
time. Upon the first day of the bombardment the
fort responded more excitedly than upon the second,
firing 660 shots during the five hours' bombardment
of the 24th, and rather less than 600 shots during
the seven hours' bombardment of the 25th. Two
English guns especially distinguished themselves—
an 8-inch, or 150-pounder, Armstrong shunt gun,
and an 8-inch Blakeley. It is believed that upon each
occasion when the Armstrong gun was discharged (it
was only fired thrice) a Federal ship shifted its posi-
tion, or hauled out of action. The Blakeley gun was
fired much more frequently, and with excellent effect.
The value of these gum, as compared with the Brook
gun, which gained such credit for sinking the Keo-
kuk off Charleston in April, 1863, is now satisfac-
torily settled, according to the judgment of the de-
fenders of Fort Fisher, in favour of the English
pieces. In regard to the minor incidents of the action
it is worthy of record that upon the afternoon of the
25th several boats or barges were lowered from the
Federal frigates on the extreme left of the arc, which
boats approached the rip at the mouth of the river,
under the guns of Fort Buchanan, and were believed
to have been feeling for torpedoes. A gun from Fort
Buchanan opened upon them, and at its fourth dis-
charge a shot cut a Federal barge in two, scattering
its crew upon the water. The men were picked up
by their comrades in the other barges, which im-
mediately proceeded to withdraw from action.

It remains for me to narrate the fortunes of that
portion of the Federal forces which disembarked
upon the beach. About 4in the afternoon of Sun-
day, the 25th, several surf boats were lowered from
the transports and ferryboats, which were an-
chored off shore in the deep water, about three
miles to the north of Fort Fisher. It is believed
that, availing themselves of leading lines warped to
the shore, these boats landed three brigades of
Federal troops under the command of General
Ames. The woods and beach in the neighbourhood
of their landing-place had been swept previous to
their debarkation by a storm of shell and sh:apnel,
which drove off Generalliirk-land and his brigade of
Confederates, who would otherwise have prevented
the landing of any Federal troops. Immediately
after landing, the Federals possessed themselves of a
redoubt upon the beach, named Battery Anderson,
and threw a strong line of pickets across the tongue
of land upon which Fort Fisher stands. Just before
sunset a strong demonstration (assault it could
hardly be called) was made, chiefly against the land
face of Fort Fisher, and it will readily hbe believed
that this:was the most anxious moment experienced
by its gallant defenders. It seems to have been the
impression of the Federals that after such a bom-
bardment as the fort had sustained the resistance to
an attack could not have been otherwise than feeble.
It is probable that at no moment during the last 18
months had Colonel Lamb so small a garrison
available for the defence of his cherished fort. But,
calling upon his gallant little hand of about 900 men,
half of them tried and seasoned troops, and half con-
sisting of Governor Vance's junior reserves, Colonel
Lamb rushed down to man the palisades, and his
efforts were nobly responded to by his men. Imme-
diately that the Federals saw the defenders of Fort
Fisher swarming over the parapet, and rushing
forward with undiminished heart and in unabated
numbers to the defence of its palisades, all vigour
wd hope departed
' from the assailants, and the fort
as
theirs4aVrraells.
fog
of
All night the Federal pickets lay upon
,
dim dawn of the 26th the
revealed alp
morning
iostrongstrongin ing the
momentarily lifted up and
lined of soldiers standing ahnost
elbow to elbow
an
the river. Again thostching from the sea to
fell and obscured liftedthe
had diaap
and cleared.