Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-01-15
CAPT. PARKER
IN WILMINGTON
Invited by Confederate Advers-
aries to Attend AM anniversary
Of Battle Of Fort Nsher.

OF Battle OF FOrf Nshef,
Captain James Parker rs at Will
mington. N. c.. on invitation Spf veter-
ans of the confederacy to attend the
reunion of the survivors of the hghtat
Fort Fisher, forty years ago today.
Captain Parker Led the northern naval
assaulting column and was recon-
mended for promotion by Admiral
Porter for gallant conduct on that
occasion. Major General N. McCar-
ter, who led-the assault of the army,
and Col. William Lamb, who COM
manded the confederate defenders of
the fort, are also present.
The following account of h Fort
Fisher engagement appeared in the
New York Times a few days ago:
To Editor of The New York Times:
Fort Fisher, so named in honor of
Col. Charles F. Fisher, of the Sixth
North Carolina Regiment, who was
killed whileA capturing the guns of
Ricketts, Battery in the first battle
of Bull Run, was, under General
Whiting as chief engineer n Col.
Lamb as commandment, the most for
midable of the coast defenses erected
by the confederates, their first con-
OIL uCJCu uClCAohtC WOlht anu TIC IdSl
captured. Under its protection block
AIDE runners had been able to evade
the blockading squadron for nearly
four years and to bring into Whining
ton large quantities of provisions and
munitions of war. After Gen. Grants
Gordon had been drawn closely
around Lees army at Richmond in
the fall OF 1864, the chief supplies
for Lees army came from abroad
through the port of Wilmington.
Gen. Lee wrote to Col. Lamb when
the movement was made against Fort
Fisher, Hold Fort Fisher, or l can
not hold Richmond
Gen. Grant, in his second volume
of his memoirs, Chapter 81, states
that its capture was of great import
ance, not only to prevent the intro
duction from abroad of vast supplies
of provisions and munitions of wal
for Lees army, but because foreign
governments had given notice that
unless Il blockade was made more
effective they would disregard it.
Gen. Benjamin f. Buffers expedition
against the for having been unsuc-
c~essful, a second expedition was then
sen down, Major General A. H. Terry
having replaced General Butler in
command of the troops. The garri-
son of the fort and Battery Buchanan
numbered 2.400 soldiers and sailors.
A 3 o'clock p. m. January Is,
1868, 1000 sailors and marines at
tackled the right salient of the fort
and 300 soldiers assaulted the left
salient. The naval force was re-
pulsed before reaching the ditch, but
the soldiers gained the parapet and
advanced steadily from traverse to
traverse, carrying the first four in a
hand-to-hand contest, in which each
side fought with bayonets and the
. butts of muskets. After two hours
inc fifteen minutes of close action
without a precedent for stubbornness
and duration since the invention of
firearms, the garrison had lost their
most important officers and used up
most of their ammunition, and the
defense manifestly weakened. A fin
al assault on the last stronghold,
which would have speedily brought
the conflict to an end, was then decid-
ed upon; the officer who was to make
it, while collecting the force for this
charge, was put out of action by
wounds, and for four hours the at
tack was suspended. Then General
Terry sent into the fort another bri-
gade of 1900 soldiers, which met
with slight resistance and completed
the victory which had been substan-
TALLY won four hours earlier.
Throughout the day the fort was un-
der the %severest bombardment ever
known. \
Alexander H. Stephens, vice pres
ident of the ~confederacy, says in his
book, 1.-The War Between the S~tates:'
snl0 faJl Af thtc forf rxyoc nna Af fhn
greatest disasters which had befallen
our cause from the beginning of the
war, not excepting the los of Vicks-
burg or Atlanta The closing of the
port of Wilmington, preventing Lees
army from obtaining supplies from
foreign countries, was the first and a
most effective blow in the campaign
which ended with Appomattox.
"The men who fought each other
at Fort Fisher learned to respect
their antagonists, for there were. ex-
hibited those qualities which have
won the commentator of mankind
throughout the ages, and many cour-
tesies have been exchanged between
them, but none more expressive of
the sentiments of goodwill and ma
tional unity entertained by those who
fought the battles of the civil war
than the invitation of the Fort Fisher
Confederate Survivors Association
sent by the Rev. James A. Smith to
the northern veterans who were then
their foemen to meet as their guests
on the site of the old fort on the for
ty-second anniversary of the battle,
January 15. The invitation reads as
follows:
"'As the acting presiding officer of
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