The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Cape Fear's Sugar Loaf

This is a name that comes up when any talk turns to Fort Fisher and the Civil War in North Carolina.

On the December 16, 2008 Wilmington Star-News had an article by Amy Hotz "Sugar Loaf a Sweet Hike."

Lower Cape Fear Tradition says Indians had "drunken frolics" on top of the 25 foot high Sugar Loaf Hill. Today, it is part of the Carolina Beach State Park and liquor is definitely not allowed, but you can do your walking on a three mile hiking trail.

Erosion has claimed some of it and it has a typical North Carolina pine forest.

Barbados planter William Holton gave it its name because of the powdery, sugar white sand while exploring the area in 1663.

Five thousand Confederates occupied a camp here during the Civil War and General Braxton Bragg was roundly condemned for not launching an attack on Union forces on the beach in both battles of Fort Fisher.

Twenty-five years after the Civil War a pier was constructed here where a Wilmington streamer unloaded passengers who then took rail cars to the beach.

Want Some Sugar in Your Tea? --Old B-Runner

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