Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-02-02
FEDERAL POINT, Fort FISHER,
Ian 1Eth 1QEh

monument is over at Fort Fisher-the
hustle that follows battle is subsiding.
Fatigue parties are burying the dead.
Ny regiment has rations, and 1 sit me
down tOdrop you line on captured Con-
federsie paper:
In the main and in detail, no doubt,
your readers have already had the facts as
seen and gathered by professional report
ers, yet a word is due to the specific part
taken by the buckeye Black Boys" and
their field and line leaders, most of whom
are from Northern Ohio and are LEADER
readers.
Lesping over the details of the tent
striking on the james, snowy bivouacs, the
night march and huddling on ship board,
sea sickness (of which no one wishes to be
reminded, and from which there were no
eremptS left to lsugh)-the arrival soft the
far famed "Fort Fisher"-the shelling of
the beach and brush to remove all other
snoysnces of landing except the plunging
sort of Baptist bath in the sea surf. These
past, many of which were not as desirable
as bridal tour or other pleasure excursion;
consider the trOopsin line across the penin-
suls, rapidly throwing up breastworks
from sea to river to guard against "fre
in the rear" and then consider the mighty
armada grandly and msjestically moving
into position near Fort Fisher, and open
ing Oh what an oISoTfn g there my
countrymenl How fessted my eyes and
how 1 longed to discover adequate super
! lstives 20 describe the scepe! A naval
pswer unequalled by any that ever Aoated
since the birth Commodore Noah The
roar of cannon rivaling all but Heavens
Artillery in extra play-the innumersble
vi1itO Puiis in, around and over the DOOM
cd fort made by the bursting of shells, the
vivid fSshes from cannon and shell-the
singing of flying shells all combined with
the importance of the result to raise an
inspiration, but did not call up the proper
language 20 describe the scene. Saturday
but increased the grandeur Of the previous
day ten fold, and yet on Sunday the
INST indiscribRble height was reached, but
have not the adiectives at hand, without
new coming, 20 approximate TO the de-
scription of scene never before presented
to mortal vision, and may God avert the
occasion for its repetition.
As 1 had no just conception Of Fort
Fisher from newspaper accounts and cuts,
propose to try my skill at a penipicture
as I co T. f-ov,, ba NTo-lo,-
I write for rural readers and the more
youthful and unmllitary ones.
If a lad wishes to make miniature Fort
Fisher, he might take board some twenty
feet long, lay it down north and south,
nearly, considering the west edge the river
beach, and the east edge the ocean beach :;
place his toy bloek-house on the north end
to represent Wilmington, cut an orange in
two, placing one half fst-side down on the
extreme southwestern corner to represent
Fort Buchanan, Zone of the finest forts in
the world); then some two feet from this
place piece of scsntling, two inches
thick, across the board, and another down
the ses-shore side one and one-falf feet
the two resembling in shape a carpenters
square, the shert arm aeress the bosrd or
peninsula. On this eaoznozs take split but
ternuts and place them Aat-side down, side
by side, all the way across, and down the
beach, leaving a space between each equal
TO each-fourIeen across the board and
sixteen along the beach; the one farther
apart and larger, may be called Fort
Lsmb. These half-butternuts represent
mounds, called trsverses, between which
are mounted heavy guns, and under each,
on level with the ground, is a sort of an
undergrown cellar, called q bomb-proof,
and capable Of holding two hundred men.
In the angle of this fort there were two
magazines built like the ebomb-proofs; these
exploded the Monday morning before 1
reached there.
All the bomb-proofs contsin more or less
ammunition, and in them, and Fort Bu-
chsnan, we captured of neutral-British
manufacture perhaps nearly as much am
munition as we expended. This qnonaon
fort forms two sides of an "oblong square,
(excuse the paradox containing some forty
or fifty acres of barren beach. Into this
field, fort or fortress, fell fast and furious
the shower of shell, and it is estimated, if
equally distributed, there would not be a
square yard without q piece. The unex-
ploded shells, from the size of cantellope
to that of a Yankee pumkin, like scattered
all over it, resembling, except in color a
Yankee pumkin-patch after the corn has
been removed in the fall. But to the fght
and the part the Buckeye" black boys
took in it, led on by Brevet Brigadier Gen
ersl Blsckman, Of the 9th U. S. C. L.
When the moment for the assault ar
rived, General Blsckman, with his COM
msnd, was ordered up to the works where,
under terrific fire of musketry, they were
ordered, by General Ames to halt and lie
down, so that the shot principally passed
over them Zone man only being killed and
four wounded.) While lying there Gem
erals Ames and Blaclmsn mounted the
trsverses and passed over two of them to
zee where to dig passage through. This
decided General Blackman was ordered to
retire with his regiment some distance,
stack arms and return to the work of dig
ging through. On his way back he met
General Terry who changed the order and
directed him to remain there as a reserve
till he ordered him up. A messenger soon
arrived with the expected order, informing
General Blsckman that the rebels had
broke and fed back into the field towards
Fort Buchanan and for him, with the 9th,
to double quick through the narrow defle
and pursue in line of battle. Double
| quick it was in earnest.
| General Blackman found white brigade
alreRdy in pursuit which bore to the right
towards the river beach, while he with The
9th, swept the sea beach and soon reach
| ed Fort Buchanan. There he discovered
many persons, and not being able to dis
cern in the dark (lO-45 P NJ, Of which
party they were. He ordered his Adiu-
tant, st. Albert j. Jones, of Cleveland, to
take six men, advance as skirmishers and
reconnoiter the party. Jones and his squad
mounted the fort, passed over and found
some 600 men, when he demanded to
know who they were. The answer came
from q man lying wounded on q stretcher,