Back on Jan. 28th, I started recounting some of a column that appeared back in February of 2008 in Brunswick's "A Bit of History."
Continuing.
By the fall of 1864, rumors of an attack on Fort Fisher began spreading. This is an account of the first battle.
"The fort's gunners had the beach zeroed in; it was pure murder and the Union troops were taking heavy casualties from the hail of gunfire coming from the fort."
"After the Union withdrawal, Captain Galloway told his men that there was no need to go back to their guns at Lockwood's Folly Inlet because no blockade runners were coming in with so many federal ships offshore."
The fort was in bad shape, "Many in the fort had come down with dysentery because of spoiled meat. Captain Galloway formed a hunting party to go to Green Swamp, hoping to get back in time with fresh meat and some supplies like flour and cornmeal from the residents of Brunswick County."
Of course, these were stories told by old men and then written down as remembered. Union sailors and marines were on the beach in the second attack. I hadn't heard of dysentery in the fort after the first attack.
A New Story On Fort Fisher. --Blockade-R
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
