Today marks the 144th anniversary of what is sometimes called the Christmas Battle.
On this date, Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1864, the Federal attack on the Confederate fort began in earnest.
A Chronology of the battle.
1:40 AM-- The powder ship Louisiana is blown up off the fort with the hopes the concussion from the explosion will knock down the fort's earthen walls. It didn't.
DAWN-- In a thick fog, the Union fleet begins moving into battle positions off the fort.
12:40 PM-- Sixty-four ships open fire. Five of the Navy's largest ships, the Susquehanna, Wabash, Colorado, Minnesota, and Powhattan are among them along with the ironclad New Ironsides and four monitors. The USS Colorado alone mounts more guns, 52, than the entire fort, 47. The Union fleet mounts over 600 cannons.
1:00 to 4:30 PM-- Confederate Brig. General William Kirkland's 1,300 man Brigade, part of Hoke's Division, had reached Wilmington around midnight of the 23rd and reached Confederate defenses at Sugar Loaf, north of the fort. There they join about 1200 men and boys of the North Carolina Junior and Senior reserves, a regiment of cavalry and two batteries of artillery.
1 PM to DUSK-- Union fleet pounds the fort with over 10,000 rounds. Col. Lamb's headquarters, barracks, and other outlying buildings destroyed. Confederate return fire and hit some vessels.
LATE AFTERNOON-- Confederate Major General W.H.C. Whiting enters the fort and confers with Colonel Lamb.
DUSK-- The Union fleet hauls off to positions farther out to sea.
Confederate casualties first day= zero. Rounds expended= 672
From North Carolina Historic Sites.
Merry Christmas to Fort Fisher. --Old Blockade-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
