The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—To the student of the art of war we com-
mend the story of Fort Fisher for its scientific
value, and to the general reader for the exceeding
interest of the narrative. The fall of this place after
a long and terrible fire may not be a deadly blow
to the South, but the Federals will look upon it,
with justice, as a brilliant success, and be encou-
raged by it to persevere in their operations against
the sea-coast towns which still remain in the hands
of their enemy. In this second expedition there
was, thanks to the sternness of the Washington
Government, no disagreement of opinion, or, at any
rate, of action between the commanders. From
first to last the navy and the land force were fully
in accord, and when the place had been crippled
by the incessant fire of the strongest fleet which
has been engaged during the war, the troops of
General Terry advanced to the attack with a spirit
which showed that the disgrace of General Butler
had not failed as a warning. Yet the praise is not
all on the one side. As the details become more
fully known, there is increasing reason to admire
the courage and pertinacity of the Confederates.
Seldom has so small a garrison in so limited a space
had to support such a fire for so great a length of
time. The bravery of General Terry's troops is
undoubted, but they only advanced to the attack
when their opponents had almost crushed by the
bombardment of the Federal ironclads. Early on
the 13th the operations began, and at a quarter to
seven o'clock the signal was given to form line of
battle, when a powerful squadron, headed by the
Brooklyn, of 26 guns, stood in and began to shell
the woods in order to facilitate the landing of troops.
In the meantime the plated vessels and monitors
took up a position in front of Fort Fisher, and at
half-past eight opened on the fort. " Every shot,"
says the writer who describes the scene in an Ameri-
can paper, " struck the embrasures, and exploding
threw clouds of sand high into the air." While this
double fire was going on the troops landed, and
by ten o'clock 4,000 of them were on the beach.
But the contest between Fort Fisher and the
ironclads was the chief work of the day. From
eight o'clock in the morning until four in the after-
noon the monitors poured in ponderous shells at
the rate of four per minute, the whole number
thrown during that time being no less than 2,000.
The fort did not reply with an equal weight of fire,
but still left its mark on the attacking fleet. At
four in the afternoon the wooden ships were sent to
reinforce the ironclads, and at 20 minutes to five
o'clock the two divisions, carrying 312 guns, joined
in the cannonade. For an hour and a half a storm
of fire was poured upon the fort, and the writer
whose narrative furnishes us with these details esti-
mates the number of shots fired during that time at
21,600. " Indeed," he says, " I have no doubt that
up to the withdrawal of the wooden walls this even-
ing not less than 25,000 shells were fired into Fort
Fisher." Such was the first day of this memorable
attack, and we much doubt whether any single fort
in the world has ever been subjected to so tremen-
dous a fire. All the Friday night the monitors and
ironsides kept up an occasional firing ; but this
ceased towards morning, and was not renewed until
10 o'clock on Saturday, when the fleet again began
firing at short range, calling forth no reply. The
third day was Sunday, and was signalised, as has
been the case so often, by a decisive conflict. The
fire on the part of the fleet became general at noon,
and at half-past three o'clock the assault was made.
" After three days and nights of bombardment,"
says the correspondent of the Baltimore American,
" Fort Fisher is ours, with all the contiguous works
commanding New Inlet." General Terry states
that the assault was made at half-past three in the
afternoon, but full possession of the work was not
obtained until 10 at night. This sufficiently shows
the desperate nature of the conflict. The fort was
at length taken, with 1,200 prisoners, among them
being General lrhiting and Colonel Lamb, who
were both-wounded. The Confederate vessels Tal-
lahassee and Chickamauga were both in the fight,
and were driven up the river. Thus fell Fort
Fisher, after an attack which had lasted, from be-
ginning to end, more than 60 hours. From- nine
in the morning of Friday until past three in the
afternoon of Sunday the garrison had to support
the fire of the Federal fleet. Although strong in
position, they were no match for the vast forces
brought against them. That they resisted so long
is sufficient proof of their courage and military
qualities. The effect of this occurrence on the con-•
tending parties can hardly as yet be estimated.
According to their usual habit, the Southerners do
not attempt to conceal their chagrin at such a loss,
and one of their organs confesses, what some have
been disposed to deny, that the capture of Fort
Fisher will make the port of Wilmington useless for
the purposes of foreign trade. But how far this
new defeat will increase their disposition for peace
remains as yet unknown. Not so, however, with
the North. The exultation produced by this vic-
tory rather exceeds what might have been expected
at a time when the Federals have achieved so many
successes. This is perhaps to be explained by the
previous failure, which had itself followed the boot-
less naval operations at Charleston. The revulsion
in public feeling tends to make the North overvalue
its last exploit. The power of the fleet, the accuracy
with which it was brought into action, frigates and
gunboats, ironsides and monitors, each taking up
their position and doing the work with the precision
of machines, the successful assault on the place
coming hard upon the discouraging arguments of
General Butler, the fierceness of the struggle, and,
finally, the prospect of closing the last great port of
the South, have combined to fill the North with new
confidence. The Navy is especially highly gratified
at having played so distinguished and useful a part.
It is the exploits of this branch of the service which
will be of most interest to our professional men. It
seems to be ascertained that the fire of the fort had
little effect on the hulls of the American ironclads.
They are said to have suffered little, the marks of
the Confederate fire being only certain indentations
on their sides, and the shooting away of their boats
and the lighter parts of their equipment. If a de-
spatch which we publish to-day is to be trusted,
Admiral Porter believes that hd possesses a vessel
which could destroy any ship of the British or
French navy, lay our towns under contribution, and
chase away anything which we might send to
blockade American ports. The ironclads lay for
five days within 800 yards of Fort Fisher and re-
ceived no material injury. If the Confederate guns
are capable of comparison with our own, the ques-
tion of ships against forts may prove to have been
considerably advanced by these experiments. Every
fight across the ocean should be a lesson for us, and
this last deserves to be studied with unusual atten-
tion.

HERALD.—The second attack upon Fort Fisher,
the important work which commands the eastern
entrance of Wilmington Harbour, was made with
the greatest determination, and a reckless disregard
of the lives of the ,brave men who were driven to
the assault against a terrible fire from the defenders.
We have now received fuller and later accounts of
the engagement, which put us more in a position to
judge of the immediate effect which the capture of
this fort will produce in the military status quo, and
its larger bearing upon the pending question as to
the power of resistance of works of this kind when
matched against a military or naval attacking force,
separate or combined. This has been hastily brought
forward as the first example in the war " of a strong,
well-garrisoned earthwork carried by assault after
the good old fashion of storming breaches." It is
true that it was finally carried by assault by a land
force; but, before the assault, it had been so
knocked to pieces by a concentrated fire of a power-
ful fleet during a bombardment which continued,
with short intervals, for three days and two nights,
that the task of the assaulting columns was ren-
dered comparatively easy. If the loss was so great,
and the reduction of the fort so difficult, when its
defences were crippled, its guns dismounted, its
garrison tired out by incessant labour and loss of
sleep,we may imagine that, if it had not been for this
preliminary bombardment from the sea, Fort Fisher
would never have been taken at all. Its history is no
argument whatever in favour of the good old system
of storming breaches, but rather a proof that,
in these days of improved artillery and rifled
small arms, that method of assault has be-
come so desperate as to be all but inapplicable
against forts of the first order. The statement
in one of the earlier telegrams, that the bombard-
ment by the fleet continued for 54 hours, is fully
corroborated by the letter written by Admiral Porter
to the Naval Department at Washington on Jan. 14.
He speaks of the siege as being in progress, and is
sanguine as to his prospects of success. Early in the
morning of the 13th he sent in the ironsides and
monitors to within a distance of 1,000 yards from
the fort. At half-past 7 a.m. the guns of the fort
opened on them, and shortly afterwards the fleet
commenced firing. The officers in the wooden ships
behind took careful note of the position of the enemy's
guns as indicated by the puffs of smoke as they
fired on the ironclads. In this first engagement he
says the iron ships had the best of it. " Traverse
after traverse disappeared, and the southern angle
of the fort began to look very dilapidated. The guns
were silenced one after the other, and only one
heavy gun in the southern angle kept up its fire."
The enemy inflicted no damage on the ironclads,
though they were hit several times. The wooden
ships then steamed up and opened fire with heavy
shells, doing great execution. All this was on the
13th. During the night the fire was kept up at
intervals. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 13th
the troops under General Terry was landed on the
isthmus, a part taking up a position across the spit,
and fronting Wilmington, another part being pushed
cautiously in the direction of the fort. Writing early
on the morning of the,l4th, Admiral Porter speaks

,
of recommencing the bombardment immediate)
after breakfast, and it appears that it was continue
until 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th. °II
the 14th a reconnaissance made by General Ile. rrY
possible.:
satisfied him that a successful assault was
The assault, however, was not actually made ti y,
3.30 p.m. on the 15th, and after six and a-11111(j
hours' hard fighting the place was carried at t
o'clock that night. General Bragg admits tha
the greater part of the garrison was captured, a%
Colonel Comstock, the chief engineer officer of tt,
Federal force, speaks of having taken at least.llo
prisoners. The naval officer who speaks of
prisoners appears to have been in error.
900,
bably the whole garrison did not exceed
and for these at least as many Federals were placei,
hors de combat. We cannot, of course, speak P°s-
tively on this point, being unwilling to commit Or..
Q
selves as deeply as a captious contemporary, la' c,
after accusing another of -" a unique misstatemen,,,;.s
a prodigious series of blunders," and divers oti"i..
crimes, immediately places itself in the veil P°6o
tion to which it would consign that sorely slander d
print. After all, the Times was in the right'tito
the Globe was in the wrong, and the confident riff
with which the one has condemned the other,l-It.iirbe
confounded as it was by the next telegram, w'
a warning to such critics for some time to come.
~,es
the result of the bombardment of Fort Fisher pin),
anything, it is that the strongest earthworks maybe
overwhelmed at last by a combination of attacks oc
sea and land ; but also that a handful of 1,20°. a
2,000 men in such a position are able to maintained
not unequal battle with an immense fleet constructed
and armed in the newest modern fashion, assT,.ee
by a picked land force of 10,000 men, during °'the
days and nights of incessant fighting. In fact' si
Moral is very decidedly in favour of earthworks, ter
the heroic defence of Fort Fisher will form a b
in the history of war, which will be read slue one
side with the tale of Fort Sumter, teaching us
Y 1
and the same lesson. It is asserted that this .
will result in the closing of the harbour of wat
ton against blockade runners, even if it shoal Fort,
be the precursor of the fall of that place. ;me
Fisher itself only commands the eastern inlet. "-ell
western entrance is still protected by Forts Caslcio
and Johnson. If, however, the gunboats Ill'the
alleged, run up the Cape Fear River, ai,.11-Aor
Federals have obtained possession of its ban'.- so
any considerable distance north of Fort Fisher,
es,
as to command the channel before it branii.uP.o
the entrance of vessels, if not impossible, Iniio
all events be rendered as difficult as into Go-
harbour of Charleston. The Confederate of
vernment will lave to seek for some other Pelo
entry along its two thousand miles of coast, Ins,
it. is willing to be entirely cut off from comm
ton with Europe. Admiral Porter draws a 11,,n"
from the successes of his ironclads which, we
as
fess, does not altogether take us by surprise: 7,4 of
are sufficiently accustomed to such exhibitlei-oa
ill-bred insolence on the part of the officers kiog
statesmen of the American Union. After ta
Fort Fisher ha thinks he can . take all the,c'srcl
and getting into the " Ercles' vein " of Mr. ,w
ds
and General Watson Webb, he informs his
that he could cross the Atlantic in the Mona,un,:nch
destroy all the ships of the English and ria-ad
navies, levy contributions on the ports of Eulg bi
and France, and persuade those Governmeli- for
very cogent arguments that it would be better vs,
them to show more respect for the United s,OOB
If this American Munchausen should eyerivcici
itl
this way we should be glad to have an oppoi`,
of arguing the question with him. We rnigg',„ ' add
the Monadnock to the instructive series
wens of naval architecture which are gaped aid be
l
by an admiring crowd at Brompton. It wo ri
v irai
a thousand pities if it foundered with the ad
on board before reaching our shores.