Second Battle of Fort Fisher The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a joint assault by Union Army and United States Navy forces 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 . 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 . Based on the design of the Malakoff Tower 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 . 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 launched a two - day attack , but were beaten back . Union order of battle . The Union Army returned in January , this time under Major General Alfred Terry . Terry was chosen by Lieutenant General Ulysses S . Grant to lead a Provisional Corps of 9 , 000 troops from the Army of the James . Rear Admiral David D . Porter returned with almost 60 vessels of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron to the North Carolina coast after the failed December attempt . Army . Provisional Corps - Brevet MG . Alfred Terry : Navy . North Atlantic Blockading Squadron - Rear Admiral David D . Porter Confederate order of battle . Confederate Major General W . H . C . Whiting commanded the District of Cape Fear and pleaded with the department commander , General Braxton Bragg to send reinforcements . Bragg was unwilling to reduce his forces , which he felt were necessary to defend Wilmington . He finally sent reinforcements from Hagood ' s Brigade to Colonel William Lamb ' s garrison bringing the total at Fort Fisher to 1 , 900 . A division of 6 , 400 troops under Major General Robert Hoke were stationed on the peninsula north of the fort . Whiting personally arrived at the fort and told the commander : " Lamb my boy , I have come to share your fate . You and your garrison are to be sacrificed . " Department of North Carolina - GEN . Braxton Bragg ( not present ) : Battle . Alfred Terry had previously commanded troops during the Second Battle of Charleston Harbor and understood the importance of coordinating with the Union Navy . He and Admiral Porter made well laid out plans for the joint attack . Terry would send one division of United States Colored Troops under Charles J . Paine to hold off Hoke ' s division on the peninsula . Terry ' s other division under Adelbert Ames , supported by an independent brigade under Colonel Joseph Carter Abbott , would move down the peninsula and attack the fort from the land face , striking the landward wall on the river side of the peninsula . Porter organized a landing force of 2 , 000 sailors and marines to land and attack the fort ' s sea face , on the seaward end of the same wall . On January 13 , Terry landed his troops in between Hoke and Fort Fisher . Hoke was unwilling to risk opening the route to Wilmington and remained unengaged while the entire Union force landed safely ashore . The next day Terry moved south towards the fort to reconnoiter the fort and decided that an infantry assault would succeed . On January 15 , Porter ' s gunboats opened fire on the sea face of the fort and by noon they succeeded in silencing all but four guns . During this bombardment Hoke sent about 1 , 000 troops from his line to Fort Fisher , however only about 400 were able to land and make it into the defense while the others were forced to turn back . About this time the sailors and marines , led by Lieutenant Commander Kidder Breese , landed and moved against the point where the fort ' s land and sea faces met , a feature known as the Northeast Bastion . The Union Army original plan was for the naval force , armed with revolvers and cutlasses , to attack in three waves with the marines providing covering fire , but instead , the assault went forward in a single unorganized mass . General Whiting personally led the defense and routed the assault , with heavy casualties in the naval force . The attack , however , drew Confederate attention away from the river gate , where Ames prepared to launch his attack . At 2 : 00 in the afternoon he sent forward his first brigade , under the command of Brevet Brigadier Newton Martin Curtis , as Ames waited with the brigades of Colonels Galusha Pennypacker and Louis Bell . An advance guard from Curtis ' s Brigade used axes to cut through the palisade s and abatis . Curtis ' s Brigade took heavy casualties as it overran the outer works and stormed the first traverse . At this point Ames ordered Pennypacker ' s Brigade forward , which he accompanied into the fort . As Ames marched forward , Confederate snipers zeroed in on his party , and cut down a number of his aides around him . Pennypacker ' s men fought their way through the riverside gate , and Ames ordered a portion of his men to fortify a position within the interior of the fort . Meanwhile the Confederates turned the cannons in Battery Buchanan at the southern tip of the peninsula and fired on the northern wall as it fell into Union hands . Ames observed that Curtis ' s lead units had become stalled at the fourth traverse , and he ordered forward Bell ' s Brigade , but Bell was killed by sharpshooters before ever reaching the fort . Seeing the Union attackers crowd into the breach and interior , General Whiting took the opportunity to personally lead a counterattack . Charging into the Union soldiers , Whiting received multiple demands to surrender , and when he refused he was shot down , severely wounded . Porter ' s gunboats helped maintain the Federal momentum . His gunners ' aim proved to be deadly accurate and began clearing out the defenders as the Union troops approached the sea wall . Curtis ' s troops gained the heavily contested 4th traverse . Colonel Lamb began gathering up every last soldier in the fort , including sick and wounded from the hospital , for a last - ditch counterattack . Just as he was about to order a charge , he fell severely wounded and was brought next to General Whiting in the fort ' s hospital . General Ames made a suggestion for the Union troops to entrench in their current positions . Upon hearing this notion , a frenzied Curtis grabbed a spade and threw it over Confederate trenches and shouted , " Dig Johnnies , for I ' m coming for you . " About an hour into the battle , Curtis fell wounded while going back to confer with Ames . Colonel Pennypacker also fell wounded before the battle ended . The grueling battle lasted for hours , long after dark , as shells plunged in from the sea and General Ames struggled with a division that became increasingly disorganized as his regimental leaders and all of his brigade commanders fell dead or wounded . General Terry sent forward Abbott ' s brigade to reinforce the attack , then joined Ames in the interior of the fortress . Meanwhile in Fort Fisher ' s hospital Colonel Lamb turned over command to Major James Reilly and General Whiting sent one last plea to General Bragg to send reinforcements . Still believing the situation in Fort Fisher was under control and tired of Whiting ' s demands , Bragg instead dispatched General Alfred H . Colquitt to relieve Whiting and assume command at Fort Fisher . At 9 : 30 p . m . Colquitt landed at the southern base of the fort just as Lamb , Whiting and the Confederate wounded were being evacuated to Battery Buchanan . At this point , the Confederate hold on Fort Fisher was untenable . The seaward batteries had been silenced , almost all of the north wall had been captured , and Ames had fortified a bastion within the interior . Terry , however , had concluded to finish the battle that night . Ames , ordered to maintain the offensive , organized a flanking maneuver , sending some of his men to advance outside the land wall , and come up behind the Confederate defenders of the last traverse . Within a few minutes the Confederate defeat was unmistakable . Colquitt and his staff rushed back to their rowboats just moments before Abbott ' s men seized the wharf . Major Reilly held up a white flag and walked into the Union lines to announce the fort would surrender . Just before 10 p . m . General Terry rode to Battery Buchanan to receive the official surrender of the fort from General Whiting . Aftermath . The loss of Fort Fisher sealed the fate of the Confederacy ' s last remaining sea port and the South was cut off from global trade . Also , many of the military supplies which the Army of Northern Virginia depended upon came through Wilmington ; there were no remaining seaports near Virginia that the Confederates could use practically . It also ended any chance of European recognition , being viewed " by many as the final nail in the Confederate coffin . " A month later , a Union army under General John M . Schofield would move up the Cape Fear River and capture Wilmington . On January 16 , Union celebrations were dampened when the fort ' s magazine exploded killing and wounding 200 Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners that were sleeping on the roof of the magazine chamber or nearby . U . S . Navy Ensign Alfred Stow Leighton died in the explosion while in charge of a squad trying to recover bodies from the fort parapet . Although several Union soldiers initially thought Confederate prisoners were responsible , an investigation opened by Terry concluded that unknown Union soldiers ( possibly drunken marines ) had entered the magazine with torches and ignited the powder . William Lamb survived the battle but spent the next seven years on crutches . General Whiting was taken prisoner and died while in Federal captivity . Colonel Galusha Pennypacker ' s wounds were thought to have been fatal and General Terry assured the young man he would receive a " brevet " promotion ( where the person promoted would be authorised to wear the insignia of the new rank , but was paid the wages of his original rank ) to brigadier general . Pennypacker did receive a brevet promotion as Terry had promised but on February 18 , 1865 he received a full promotion to brigadier general of volunteers at age 20 . He remains the youngest person to have held the rank of general in the U . S . Army ( apart from the Marquis de Lafayette ) . Newton Martin Curtis also received a full promotion to brigadier general and both he and Pennypacker received the Medal of Honor for their part in the battle . Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton made an unexpected visit to Fort Fisher where General Terry presented him with garrison ' s flag . Medals of Honor . During the Battle of Fort Fisher , fifty - one soldiers , sailors and Marines received the Medal of Honor for their actions .