The troops had, meantime, slowly advanced towards the works, hoping that a breach might soon be effected, sufficient to warrant an assault. All night long a slow but constant fire was kept up by the monitors, affording the garrison no opportunity of repose. At daylight it was discovered that the flagstaff had been shot away, but at eight o’clock it was replaced by another, showing the determination of the garrison still to resist the tremendous force that was arrayed against them.
The troops had now thrown up two lines of breastworks across the peninsula, extending from the ocean to Cape Fear river, and had advanced their line to within a mile of the fort.
During the morning of Sunday, the 15th, the bombardment still continued, eliciting but feeble and occasional response from the enemy, while the immense shots from the fleet were striking the fort, for some time, at the rate of three or four a minute. By noon the sea face of the fort was so battered that it was thought a successful charge might be made. Under cover of the fire of the fleet, one thousand six hundred sailors, armed with cutlasses, revolvers, and carbines, and four hundred marines, the whole commanded by Fleet Captain K. R. Breese, were landed on the beach, and by digging rifle-pits worked their way up within two hundred yards of the fort. The troops selected for the assault were Ames’s division, comprising the brigades of Curtis, Pennypacker and Bell, while Paine’s division of colored troops and Abbott’s brigade held the intrenchments facing Wilmington, against which Hoke’s troops, estimated at five thousand strong, had begun to demonstrate. At 3.30 P. M. signal was made from the shore to the fleet to change the direction of the fire, in order that the troops might assault; and soon afterwards the sailors rushed with reckless energy toward the parapet of the fort, which at once swarmed with rebel soldiers, who poured in upon them a murderous fire of musketry. The marines, who were to have covered the assaulting party, for some unexplained reason failed to fire upon the rebels on the parapet, all of whom, in the opinion of Admiral Porter, might have been killed. “I saw,” he said, “how recklessly the rebels exposed themselves, and what an advantage they gave our sharpshooters, whose guns were scarcely fired, or fired with no precision. Notwithstanding the hot fire, officers and sailors in the lead rushed on, and some even reached the parapet, a large number having entered the ditch. The advance was swept from the parapet like chaff, and, notwithstanding all the efforts made by the commanders of companies to stay them, the men in the rear, seeing the slaughter in front, and that they were not covered by the marines, commenced to retreat; and, as there is no stopping a sailor, if he fails on such an occasion on the first rush, I saw the whole thing had to be given up.” The attack on this part of the fort, though a failure, diverted a part of the enemy’s attention, and rendered the work laid out for the main storming column of troops much easier.
At the word of command, the division of General Ames, which had been gradually drawn forward under the shelter of hastily formed breastworks, rushed toward the fort, the brigade of Curtis taking the lead. The palisades had been so much injured by the fire of the fleet that a few vigorous strokes from the axemen sufficed to clear gaps for the passage of the troops, and, in the face of a severe enfilading fire, a lodgment was soon effected on the west end of the land front. Pennypacker’s and Bell’s brigades followed in rapid succession, the latter moving between the work and the river. “On this side,” says General Terry, “there was no regular parapet, but there was an abundance of cover afforded to the enemy by cavities, from which sand had been taken for the parapet, the ruins of barracks and storehouses, the large magazine, and by traverses behind which they stubbornly resisted our advance. Hand-to-hand fighting of the most desperate character ensued. The first brigade dashed forward with a run, and reaching the parapet near the western extremity of the north face, gained a foothold within the enclosed space of the fort, by entering within through the gaps of the palisades. They had now not only to maintain the position they had obtained, but to advance, in the face of a determined foe, to the succeeding traverses, over thirty feet in height, and were compelled to capture nine or ten in succession before the rebel forces yielded to the repeated assaults.
Each traverse was in reality an independent fort, enclosing within its dense walls, a room entered by a passage so narrow that two men could easily defend it against a large force. During the assault, General Ames’ men were exposed to a galling fire of artillery and musketry, while Fort Buchanan on the southwest also opened fire on the Federal columns. Abbott’s brigade and a regiment of colored troops, dispatched by General Terry, reinforced General Ames before dark, followed soon after by the general-in-chief and his staff. Generals Curtis and Pennybacker were badly wounded in the assault, and Colonel Bell received mortal injuries.
It was not until after ten o’clock at night that all resistance ceased, and the star-spangled banner floated out in the bright moonlight unchallenged over the crumbled ramparts. When General Terry telegraphed to Admiral Porter the final result, “we stopped fire,” says the Admiral, “and gave them three of the heartiest cheers I ever heard. It was the most terrific struggle I ever saw. The troops have covered themselves with glory; and General Terry is my beau-ideal of a general.” The garrison consisted of two thousand three hundred men, of whom one thousand nine hundred and seventy-one, with one hundred and twelve officers, were captured. The rest were killed and wounded. Their commanders, General Whiting and Colonel Lamb, were both captured, badly wounded.
The loss of the Federal army was one hundred and ten killed, and five hundred and thirty-six wounded. That of the navy was between two and three hundred in killed and wounded, principally in the assaulting, column of sailors, and by the explosion of two fifteen-inch guns on board the monitors. The ships sustained but trifling damage.
The greater part of the guns of the fort were dismounted, or otherwise injured by the fire of the fleet, but the work itself received no damage which was not susceptible of immediate repair, its strength being about the same as before the bombardment. According to Admiral Porter, who had visited the Malakoff during the siege of Sebastopol, Fort Fisher was a much more formidable work than that celebrated stronghold. Its capture caused an almost unprecedented rejoicing throughout the United States. The capture of the fort sealed the fate of the rebel supremacy in Cape Fear river.
On the 16th and 17th the enemy abandoned and blew up Fort Caswell and the works on Smith’s island, which were immediately occupied by the Federal forces.
The advance up the river was a continuous battle. On the night of the 21st, the rebels commenced destroying their materials and stores in Wilmington. Fifteen thousand barrels of resin, and one thousand bales of cotton were destroyed, and extensive cotton sheds, steam-mills and turpentine works were consumed. At daylight on the morning of the 22d, General Terry’s troops entered the city, and the reign of the rebellion in that important city was at an end.