INTERIOR OF FORT FISHER.
During the interval, our forces had been strengthened, by the arrival of the 23d army corps, under General Schofield, and many new recruits had arrived from the North, our regiment receiving on the 7th of February two hundred and ten.
The capture of Fort Fisher was an important event. By it one of the worst points on the southern coast was shut up, for, in spite of the utmost vigilance on the part of our navy, immense quantities of supplies had been brought in, through the several entrances of Cape Fear River, by blockade-runners. But a much more important service was rendered to our cause by its capture than in cutting off supplies. For at this time General Sherman, having completed the wonderful march from Atlanta to the sea-coast at Savannah, had now turned northward, and was on his way to co-operate with the Army of Virginia, in that final struggle which ended the rebellion; and the capture of Fort Fisher, and the other defences on Cape Fear River gave a new basis of supplies and military operations, which materially aided Sherman.
PLAN OF LAND AND NAVAL OPERATIONS AT FORT FISHER.
General Terry, having succeeded in capturing these forts, disposed his forces, which consisted of about eight thousand men, in such a manner as to be secure from attacks, and awaited the action of General Schofield, who had been assigned the command of the new department of North Carolina. No time was wasted. New and more favorable positions were taken from time to time, and on the 20th a general movement was made towards Wilmington.
On the 21st, our regiment, which, with the other troops under General Terry, was advancing towards this city on the east side of the river, suddenly came upon a strong force of the Confederates, who opened a heavy fire, by which two men were killed, and Major Elfwing and seventeen others wounded. The enemy were driven within their works and held there, until a division under General Cox, by threatening to cross the river above the city, compelled a general retreat, which was effected after the burning of the steamers at the wharves, and the destruction of the military stores and cotton in and near the city.
On the 22d, Washington's birthday, Wilmington was occupied by our troops, and perhaps no result of this occupation was of as much interest to the soldiers as the fact that by it they secured a supply of tobacco, of which they had been deprived for several weeks. In the recent operations, the loss to the Federal side was about two hundred in killed, wounded, and missing; and the Confederate loss, about a thousand, in killed and wounded, while a large number of prisoners, with thirty pieces of cannon, and an immense quantity of ammunition, had fallen into our hands.
General Schofield's next movement was against Goldsboro, to open a communication with General Sherman; and a large force was sent to Kingston, to secure and repair the railroad. These troops advanced by way of Newbern. Our division was allowed no rest, but on the afternoon of the 22d started in pursuit of the retreating enemy. So sharply was this kept up that on the 27th a flag of truce was proposed by the Confederate commander, for the purpose of transferring the Union prisoners, so much did they encumber his movements. Accordingly, we received into our lines nearly ten thousand, officers and privates, some of whom had been captured from our regiment at Olustee and Cold Harbor. All were in the most deplorable condition, half clothed and almost wholly starved. These were conveyed to Wilmington, to which city our regiment returned March 2.