Booknotes: Fort Fisher

New Arrival:

• Fort Fisher by John Hairr (Arcadia Pub, 2024).

This is a new release from Arcadia's Images of America series.

Not part of the nation's antebellum system of brick coastal fortifications, the massive soil and sod-based Fort Fisher was erected during the war and evolved into one of the conflict's toughest nuts to crack. From the description: "The sandy dunes stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape Fear River may not have looked impressive, but Fort Fisher, North Carolina, was a key part of the coastal defenses protecting the most important link in the lifeline of the Confederacy. Blockade runners and naval raiders alike sheltered for cover under the protection provided by powerful artillery batteries, which warships of the Union Navy dared not challenge. Modeled by the fort’s commander, Col. William Lamb, after Russian-engineered designs, the sandy ramparts defending the New Inlet entrance to the Cape Fear River eventually became the largest fortifications in the South, gaining the nickname “Confederate Gibraltar.”"

Following a brief introductory outline of the late-war campaigns against Fort Fisher, the rest of the material is divided into five chapters. Utilizing captioned maps, newspaper illustrations, old and modern photographs, and images (often full-page photos) of key figures in the struggle over the fort, the first chapter covers Fisher's construction and early-war history. Its key role in shepherding blockade runners in and out of the Cape Fear River is highlighted in the following chapter. A number of the ships involved in those endeavors are featured. The first major direct action against the fort, spotlighted by the failed powder vessel experiment, is the subject of the third chapter's sequence of captioned photos and illustrations. The January 1865 fall of Fort Fisher through direct assault is explored in the fourth chapter. The highlight of the fifth chapter is the series of Timothy O'Sullivan photographs documenting the fort's appearance and condition after Union forces took possession of it.