THE STORY 
 OF FORT FISHER 
 
 BY 
 
 MAJOR LEONARD R. THOMAS 
 
Cfte Lifcrarp 
 
 of thr 
 
 (Untoersitp of Bout Carolina 
 
 Collection of &ott§ Carolinfana 
 
 TH5" 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032744629 
 
 FOR USE ONLY IN 
 THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION 
 
Preface 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 In November, 1864, the Ninety-seventh Regiment was 
 with the Army of the James in its intrenchments on the 
 north side of the river confronting Longstreet's corps, also 
 in intrenchments from four to six miles from Richmond. 
 The opposing picket lines were everywhere within hail of 
 each other. 
 
 The Ninety-seventh had just passed the third anni- 
 versary of its organization, October 29th, with four hundred 
 and eighty-three on its muster rolls. Some sixty or seventy 
 of these were all that were left of the three hundred and 
 thirty-seven re-enlisted veterans. The remainder had all 
 been killed or wounded in that bloody summer of 1864. The 
 Regiment had lost over five hundred from May to November 
 that year. The original commissioned officers had been 
 killed, wounded, or mustered out at expiration of term 
 except Col. Galusha Pennypacker, who, with four wounds 
 on his body, was, and had long been, in command of the 2nd 
 brigade, 2nd division, 24th Corps. His old regiment was a 
 part of the brigade. 
 
 We had lost a host of our best and bravest that summer 
 on the lead swept lines that invested Richmond and Peters- 
 burg, and November 1st, 1864, nearly all the companies 
 were commanded by their first sergeants, though on or 
 about December 1st, some six or seven sergeants received 
 commissions as lieutenants. Colonel Pennypacker was the 
 only field officer and the reduced number of the rank and file 
 did not permit the muster of an additional officer of that 
 grade. 
 
 But we were still the Ninety-seventh Regiment, bound 
 together by our great traditions arid' impelled by the same 
 spirit of enduring courage that had carried us through the 
 ten weeks under fire in the trenches before Fort Wagner in 
 1863, made us go forward to certain slaughter at Bermuda 
 Hundreds, charge up to the fire girdled Confederate works 
 at the battle of the Petersburg Mine and meet unfalteringly 
 the sure daily losses in the deadly picket duty on the Peters- 
 burg lines which was a feature of that summer's fighting. 
 
The regiment had been wrought to a mettle which made it 
 quick and vigorous in attack and gave it strong endurance 
 under fire. That it was all that has just been claimed, was 
 soon to be proven in the crowning battle and victory of its 
 career at Fort Fisher, fought January 15, 1865. That 
 Sunday was a never-to-be-forgotten day to all who survived 
 the battle, and the memory of that afternoon of stern strife 
 down by the Cape Fear has remained indelibly stamped 
 upon the consciousness of all who passed through it. The 
 lapse of fifty years has not dimmed that memory in the mind 
 of the writer, and as January 15, 1915, will be the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the battle, all of which he saw and part of 
 which he was, he has written this story. L. R. T. 
 
 Ocean City, N. J., January 1, 1915. 
 
The Story of Fort Fisher, N. C. 
 January 15, 1865 
 
 As told by 
 
 Leonard R. Thomas 
 
 Major, 97th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers 
 One of the Survivors of that Bloody Battle 
 
 One of the most brilliant in the long list of Union vic- 
 tories was the capture of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, at 
 the mouth of Cape Fear River, Sunday, January 15, 1865, 
 the last year of the Great War. With the exception of 
 Bentonville and the closing operations around Petersburg 
 it was the last great conflict of that war and the interest 
 centering about it, both because of its importance in Grant's 
 plans, and because of the brilliancy of the action itself;*was 
 so great that even now, after the lapse of fifjP years, the 
 story of the battle will, it seems to me, be interesting, not 
 only to other survivors of that bloody struggle, to relatives 
 and friends, but to the general public as well. I have there- 
 fore set down from personal recollections and a few notes 
 made at the time, the story of Fort Fisher, as it comes to 
 me over the years since 1865. ^ - 
 
 The part that the capture of Fort Fisher playerllin 
 Grant's plans has often been told and need not be given us 
 detail; nor is it necessary to do more than speak of the 
 location of the Fort, commanding, as it did, the entrance to 
 Cape Fear River, making it both a perfect protection for 
 blockade runners, and a defence to Wilmington, thirty 
 miles above. A brief reference, however, to the structure 
 itself may help to a clearer understanding of the battle. 
 
 Federal Point is the name of the narrow sandy penin- 
 sula which extends below Wilmington between the Cape 
 Fear and the coast. For the last five or six miles of its 
 length the Point is not in any place more than two miles 
 wide, and was, at the time of the conflict, covered, in some 
 places, with pine woods. But towards its southern end 
 there were shallow swamps and a low tangled growth of 
 cedar scruboak and pine, to within^a half mile or less of the 
 
 <r \ 
 
fort. My recollection is, however, that the last mile and a 
 half of Federal Point was mostly bare and open beach, with 
 a treeless swamp next the river. On this open ground the 
 great fortification stood, with its land face within a mile of 
 the extreme southern end of Federal Point. . 
 
 Fort Fisher was constructed of beach sand sodded with 
 marsh grass, and had been built in accordance with its 
 situation and use, which was, as I have said, to control the 
 navigation of the Cape Fear in the interest of blockade 
 running and against a naval attack upon Wilmington. 
 
 As any land force operating against it must do so by 
 landing on Federal Point north of the fort and attacking 
 from that direction, the north or land face of the fortifica- 
 tion was very strongly built. Beginning at the river, a 
 parapet twenty feet high ran east some six hundred yards 
 to a bastion near the sea, where it made a sharp angle and 
 then ran southwestward thirteen hundred yards, ending in 
 a small work called "Mound Battery." The fort thus had a 
 sea and a land face, but was open at the back next the 
 river. Twenty-four heavy guns armed the sea face and 
 twenty-one the land face. 
 
 There had been built on the parapet of the land face, at 
 equal intervals, some twelve traverses, rising ten feet above 
 the parapet, at right angles to its line and extending back 
 twenty-five feet towards the interior of the work. Between 
 these were placed the heavy guns. A high loopholed palisade 
 was in front of the land face. The heavy traverses referred 
 to played an important part in the battle, for it was over 
 them and about their bases that the most desperate fighting 
 took place. The construction of the sea face was similar to 
 that of the land face, but lighter. The garrison consisted 
 of 2,500 Confederate veterans, commanded by General 
 William H. C. Whiting and Colonel William Lamb. 
 
 Grant had been intending to take Fort Fisher all the 
 fall of 1864, and had caused to be assembled in Hampton 
 Roads for the purpose, under Admiral Porter, a great fleet 
 carrying more than six hundred guns. This fleet early in 
 December was joined by 6,500 infantry from the Army of 
 the James, but there was so much delay that no attack was 
 made until Christmas Day, and then only a partial one, 
 which failed. 
 
 General B. F. Butler, as commander of the Army of the 
 James, had accompanied the expedition, and he, when the 
 
immediate commander of the troops, General Weitzel, 
 reported against making an assault, ordered the land force 
 back to the Army of the James. Grant, according to the 
 army talk of the time, was greatly displeased and blamed 
 Butler for the failure. At any rate, Butler was relieved of 
 his command and ordered to report at his home, Lowell, 
 Mass. 
 
 Porter's fleet had remained off Federal Point, the 
 Admiral strongly advising a renewal of the attack, and we 
 had no sooner reached our camps north of the James and 
 renewed clothing and equipments, than Grant ordered us 
 back; the 6,500 detail of the first expedition having been 
 raised by the addition of Abbott's brigade, 24th corps, to 
 8,000 officers and men. 
 
 The quality of this force had so much to do with the 
 winning of the victory that I may be pardoned for attempt- 
 ing a short description of it. No pains had been spared to 
 make it a thoroughly efficient body and none were selected 
 except those of well-known military hardihood. The second 
 division of the 24th corps, commanded by Brigadier General 
 Adelbert Ames, was selected for what we all felt sure would 
 be a bloody task, and of the 5,000 which the division num- 
 bered only 3,300 were taken. Ames' first brigade was com- 
 manded by Colonel N. M. Curtis, 142nd New York; his 
 second by Colonel Galusha Pennypacker, 97th Pennsylvania ; 
 his third by Colonel Louis Bell, 4th New Hampshire. The 
 second brigade was the largest and numbered about 1,500. 
 It was composed of the 203rd, 97th and 76th Pennsylvania 
 and the 47th and 48th New York. 
 
 As I recall the names of the regimental commanders 
 in these three brigades, they were : Colonel John W. Moore, 
 of Philadelphia, for the 203rd; Colonel John S. Littell, for 
 the 76th ; Colonel William B. Coan, for the 48th, and Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel Joseph M. MacDonald, for the 47th. Colonel 
 John Wainwright, now of Wilmington, Del., — and at the 
 time of the battle a captain, — led the 97th. 
 
 I cannot recall the state numbers of the regiments com- 
 posing the first and third brigades and Colonel Abbott's 
 brigade, but the 3rd, the 117th, the 142nd, the 112th, the 
 115th, the 169th New York and the 3rd and the 4th New 
 Hampshire were some of them. 
 
 The other white troops with us were Battery E, 3rd 
 U. S. Artillery, commanded by First Lieutenant John R. 
 
Myrick ; 1st New York Independent Light Battery, Captain 
 Richard H. Lee, and one company of the 1st New York 
 Engineers, Captain Charles B. Parsons. Brigadier General 
 Charles J. Paine's division of United States colored troops, 
 25th corps, were also a part of the force. Major General 
 Alfred H. Terry was selected by Grant to command the 
 expedition. 
 
 January 6, 1865, we took transports at Bermuda Hun- 
 dred, on the James, and by the evening of the 8th had 
 joined Porter at the rendezvous off Beaufort, N. C. We 
 were detained there by stormy weather until the 12th, but 
 by evening of that day the expedition had come together off 
 Federal Point. 
 
 / The morning of Friday, January 13th, dawned bright, 
 and soon after sunrise two hundred boats from the fleet 
 rowed to the sides of the transports, the landing began, and 
 by four o'clock in the afternoon the entire land force with 
 their ammunition and sufficient rations were ashore on 
 Federal Point, about three miles north of the fortification 
 we had come to take. A section of the fleet protected, with 
 its fire, the landing from any interference by Hoke's division 
 of Lee's army, which was in position on the Point below 
 Wilmington. His pickets were watching the landing from 
 a line just out of range of the navy's artillery. 
 
 The landing was made in a heavy surf, and not a few 
 of us got our first salt water bath that forenoon, though 
 without bathing suits. There were no serious mishaps, how- 
 ever, for of all the day's impressions the one that after fifty 
 years remains brightest in memory is the rough kindness 
 of the sailors who were manning the boats. They jeered us 
 for land lubbers, but they gave a helping hand always where 
 it was needed. A soldier astride of a sailor's neck and being 
 carried to land through the surf was a common sight. 
 Scores of these gallant tars fell in the battle. 
 
 While the landing was going on, the situation began to 
 dawn upon us. We were soldiers of long acquaintance with 
 the enemy's way of doing things ; there we were on an open 
 beach with the big fort on one side and a veteran division 
 of 5,000 Confederates on the other. We had learned in 
 Virginia that Confederate soldiers could always be counted 
 on to make trouble if there was opportunity to do it, and 
 we were not sure that an attack from Fort Fisher with one 
 
at the same time from the direction of Wilmington would 
 not be tried. 
 
 But we found that General Terry, with Colonel Corn- 
 stock, of Grant's staff, and the division commanders had 
 the situation well in hand. They pushed out strong skirmish 
 lines in both directions and under cover of them examined 
 the ground for a good line of defence against an attack by 
 Hoke. By evening one, about two miles from Fisher, was 
 found, extending from sea to river. 
 
 In 1864, picks and shovels were as much a part of our 
 business equipment as were muskets, and, though we never 
 liked them, we had become experts in their use. This ex- 
 pedition had brought along thousands of the homely imple- 
 ments, and at nine P. M. on the 13th, we were formed on 
 the line selected by the commanders ; the picks and shovels 
 were at hand, and by the morning of the 14th a breastwork 
 capable, if well defended, of resisting any attack had been 
 built. Paine's colored troops, Abbott's brigade and the two 
 field batteries we had brought, took charge of the line 
 leaving Ames' division free to prepare for the service before 
 it. 
 
 All day of Saturday, January 14th, Porter kept up a 
 fire on the Fort, while the Army leaders, from a point near 
 the river within six hundred yards of the fort, made their 
 examination of the work. It was decided to make the assault 
 the next day, Sunday, January 15th, at three o'clock in the 
 afternoon, and Ames and his division were selected for the 
 work. The Admiral agreed to silence Fisher's artillery and 
 break down the palisades with the fire of his fleet. He was 
 also to assist, by charging at the hour fixed for the assault, 
 the sea angle of the fort with 2,000 sailors and marines who, 
 next day, were to land for that purpose. Commander 
 Breese of the Navy led them, and the late Admiral "Bob" 
 Evans, who was then a midshipman of eighteen, and who 
 was desperately wounded in the charge, was one of his 
 officers. 
 
 As Paine's colored troops were not called upon to fight 
 since no attack was made on their line no further reference 
 to them seems necessary. I commanded a company of the 
 97th Pennsylvania which formed part of Ames' division so 
 that the attack must be told of as nearly as possible as I 
 saw it while endeavoring to perform my duty as an officer 
 of the line. 
 
Preparing for the Assault 
 
 Curtis' first brigade was within six hundred yards of 
 the fort on the side next the river on the afternoon of the 
 14th and remained there during the night. The second and 
 the third were relieved from other duty during the same 
 afternoon, and ordered to replenish ammunition, fill haver- 
 sacks and canteens, put muskets in working condition and 
 get all the rest they could. 
 
 We had been pretty certain all along, that there was 
 bloody work ahead of us, but when we got those orders, 
 there was no longer any doubt about it. The orders meant 
 battle, that night, it might be, certainly the next day. 
 
 But there was no time, and but little disposition to 
 indulge in gloomy forebodings. We thought much more 
 about getting a good supper and some sleep than about the 
 coming conflict. About midnight, the two brigades were 
 moved into a low growth of pine and cedar, ordered to lie 
 on their arms without fires and rest till morning. It was a 
 clear, frosty night in mid January and only experienced 
 soldiers can realize how it was with no fires. It was too 
 cold to sleep, so we shivered through the rest of the night in 
 silence, eagerly awaiting the morning, though all knew 
 that for some it would be their last. All were resolute to 
 win the victory that day, if good conduct could do it. 
 
 The morning of Sunday, the 15th, was chilly, but there 
 was a bright sun which was greeted as an augury of victory 
 as we filed into position near the river, in close support of 
 Curtis, who had remained all night in line within six hun- 
 dred yards of the fort. The movement brought us out in 
 full view of the hostile stronghold and of the navy, which 
 by eight A. M. began its part of the day's work. It was a 
 sight to stir the most sluggish blood and it must remain for- 
 ever in the memory of every survivor of the conflict. 
 
 The surf of the previous day or two had gone down 
 and the sea was almost without a ripple. Sixty war vessels 
 were in three lines just off the shore, all arranged in a 
 mighty curve which enveloped the enemy on the south, 
 southeast, east and northeast. 
 
 The admiral had ordered careful aim, and when the 
 four hundred heavy guns in action opened, there resulted a 
 fire which for power and accuracy was both terrible and 
 magnificent. A steady rain of great shells fell upon the 
 
fort, seaching every spot on its parapets and in its interior. 
 They came from every side except the west and they were 
 falling and bursting faster than the ticking of a watch. 
 The Confederate artillerists tried in vain to stand to their 
 guns. One by one, these were broken or dismounted, and 
 the garrison driven to their bomb proofs. 
 
 During the forenoon, Commander Breese landed his 
 men from the fleet and by one-thirty P. M., they were 
 standing in column on the beach ready for the signal to go 
 forward to their part of the day's task. 
 
 On the side of the river, it was exactly two o'clock, 
 when sixty of the 13th Indiana with forty volunteers of 
 Curtis' brigade, all armed with repeating rifles, and pro- 
 vided with shovels, — Col. Lent of the 13th leading, — passed 
 Ames' lines and went forward at a run to within one hun- 
 dred and seventy-five yards of the fort. Here they quickly 
 covered themselves in a shallow trench in the sand, lay down 
 and began to take pot shots at the enemy who now began 
 to appear on the ramparts and open fire with their muskets. 
 
 Curtis' brigade immediately went to within about four 
 hundred yards of the fort, lay down and with tin cups and 
 plates, knives, sword blades and bayonets partially covered 
 themselves by throwing the sand to their front. Penny- 
 packer's second brigade came close to Curtis, Bell's third 
 brigade following him in close support. 
 
 Soon Curtis again advanced at a run to a line close 
 behind the sharp-shooters, Pennypacker followed to the line 
 just vacated by Curtis and Bell came to within two hundred 
 yards of Pennypacker. 
 
 On paper, the movements which have just been re- 
 ferred to look commonplace and quite in the line of a 
 soldier's business, but death was busy in our ranks all this 
 time. For the veteran marksmen on the hostile ramparts 
 were active with their muskets, and their fire began to bite 
 in the second and third brigades even while they were 
 wading a waist deep and icy cold swampy pond distant 
 some six hundred yards from the fort, and it became deadly 
 while we were forming line on the positions from which the 
 final advance was made. Here a number of officers fell with 
 many of their men, but there was no faltering in that 
 veteran division and all were intent upon coming to grips 
 with the task before them. 
 
The Assault. 
 
 We had not long to wait under this fire. It was three 
 twenty-five o'clock when General Terry signalled the navy 
 to direct its fire on the sea face of the fort and ordered 
 Ames to send his infantry in to the attack, the men of the 
 navy charging at the same moment. They were, however, 
 quickly repulsed with severe loss, for the enemy drew to- 
 gether a strong force at the sea angle and ran forward a 
 couple of light guns whose double charges of canister with 
 the heavy musketry were too much for the brave blue 
 jackets and marines. They were compelled to draw back 
 out of the fire. The enemy had assembled so much force to 
 oppose this gallant advance, that they left their lines thinly 
 manned on the side next the river, and while the yelling 
 Confederates were shouting victory and asking the sailors 
 why they did not "come aboard," the men of the army had 
 broken into the fort. For when the word came to advance, 
 all three of the brigades rose alert from the ground, officers 
 and color bearers ran out to the front, the men pressed 
 close after them and all rushed for the west end of the land 
 face. The first brigade from its position had the lead, but 
 the color bearers of all the regiments strove to see Who 
 should first arrive, so that the charge became a race over 
 the last two hundred yards, which were passed on the run, 
 and the heads of all the brigades reached the fort almost 
 at the same time. This first rush carried all the hostile line 
 from the river to the fourth of the great traverses. 
 
 But Fort Fisher was not yet taken. The veteran garri- 
 son rallied, and then a contest began which for desperate 
 intensity was unusual even in the Civil War. Bell's brigade 
 was formed inside the work to fire on the rear of both its 
 faces, while the first and second continued the task of 
 driving the enemy from the remaining nine traverses of 
 the land face. The interior was full of holes from which 
 sand had been taken ; in these the Confederates took cover 
 and the fight settled down into one of the bloodiest kind of 
 sharp shooting. The only way in which progress could be 
 made at the traverses was to close with the enemy over their 
 tops and around their bases. It was in this desperate work 
 that the hardest fighting of the day was done. Officers 
 seized muskets from dead hands and joined in the combat. 
 Pennypacker had been desperately wounded as he was plant- 
 
 10 
 
ing the flag of his regiment on the fifth traverse, Moore was 
 killed at the first traverse, Curtis, with blood streaming 
 from a wound in the face and musket in hand, remained 
 fighting at the head of the men. General Ames himself, in 
 the intervals of directing the battle, used a musket with 
 effect. Every man was engaged. 
 
 By six o'clock, all but three of the traverses had been 
 carried, and at seven, or soon after, Terry ordered up 
 Abbott's brigade, upon whose arrival, all went forward to- 
 gether against the enemy, and before nine, Fort Fisher was 
 in Union keeping. 
 
 The garrison retreated to the extreme end of Federal 
 Point and being there hemmed in by Abbott, were to the 
 number of 1,900 compelled to surrender. Forts Caswell and 
 Johnson across the mouth of Cape Fear on the mainland 
 surrendered the next day, bringing the captured artillery 
 up to one hundred and sixty-nine guns, some of them the 
 heaviest of the period. 
 
 The losses had been heavy for the numbers engaged, 
 amounting to over 50 per cent of the officers and more than 
 25 per cent of the men on each side; the battle took front 
 ank among Union victories. Grant ordered a hundred- 
 gun salute in honor of it in each of his principal armies. 
 
 The day after the battle, Secretary Stanton who was 
 returning from a consultation with Sherman at Savannah, 
 ran his steamer in, and landed to hear the particulars. He 
 personally thanked Admiral Porter, General Terry, General 
 Ames and all the brigade commanders who survived, and 
 ordered a list made of officers and men who had been con- 
 spicuous for good conduct. He breveted these officers and 
 gave the men honorable mention in orders. 
 
 Side Lights on the Battle. 
 
 The deadly accuracy of the enemy's musketry as we 
 formed in the plain within four hundred yards of the fort 
 has been mentioned. In volume, it was not nearly so great 
 as we had frequently been under in Virginia, but there was 
 in it a murderous quality which was noted at the time even 
 amid the fierce excitement of the charge. It was not a blind 
 fire whistling and humming overhead, and the number of 
 stricken men, increasing from moment to moment, showed 
 how well the veterans on the ramparts could aim. Caps and 
 clothing were pierced, swords and scabbards were hit, belts 
 and canteen straps were cut. 
 
 11 
 
The fire was the harder to endure because there was no 
 way of replying to it and there was but little shelter in 
 the shallow sand trench in which we were lying. The Con- 
 federate bullets kept continually hitting men in the lines, 
 testing severely the endurance under fire of the troops, that 
 highest attainment of good infantry and the last to be 
 learned. Those veterans had learned it in their three and 
 a half years of service. 
 
 The advance to the position from which the final rush 
 was made was by the flank, right in front, the heads of 
 column arriving first at the line on which deployment was 
 to be made. A successive formation, "On the right by file 
 into line" was therefore used to bring the 2nd and 3rd 
 brigades into line for the attack. Though fifty years have 
 passed, I well remember the good conduct of all as we passed 
 from column of fours into line, each file as it took its 
 place bringing the musket to "The Carry" as the drill pre- 
 scribed, though men were falling all the while. Every 
 officer and man was apparently more intent upon a nice 
 execution of the movement than he was upon the advance 
 we were about to make against the flaming hell in front. 
 A soldier is nothing without drill and discipline. Lieuten- 
 ants Smedley, Taylor and, I think Duffie, of the Ninety 
 Seventh were all wounded while the line was being formed. 
 Wainwright, Odiorne, Haines and the writer were all 
 privileged to join in the final thronging rush that effected 
 the lodgment in the fort. Odiorne, musket in hand, was 
 killed on the parapet; Haines was there mortally wounded 
 and the other two both wounded. Not one of the seven 
 officers with the regiment escaped death or wounds. 
 
 The final advance was made in silence though here 
 and there in the lines a few rugged soldiers gave vent to 
 their feeling in a fierce Northern "hurrah" so different from 
 the shrill slogan by which the men of the South were wont 
 to utter their passion in battle. We had learned well what 
 that yell meant. We had heard it often enough to know 
 that when it was heard in volume, we would be instantly 
 under a wasting musketry or be called upon to face a swift 
 advance of a surging mass of "rebel" infantry that only the 
 hardest fighting could stop. 
 
 The first colors planted on the works were two or three 
 guidons of the 117th New York, but the first regimental 
 flag I saw placed on the parapet, was that of the 97th Penn- 
 
 12 
 
sylvania. It was in the hands of Col. Pennypacker who, 
 after placing it on the fifth traverse, was immediately shot 
 down by a Confederate marksman not twenty paces from 
 him. I saw Col. John W. Moore of the 203rd Pennsylvania 
 at the first traverse with Col. Pennypacker, and I heard the 
 latter call as he took his flag from Color Bearer McCarty, 
 "Moore, I want you to take notice that this is the flag of my 
 old regiment." I had an impression at the time that Moore 
 had the colors of his regiment in his hand when he fell with 
 a bullet through his heart an instant after Pennypacker 
 called to him. He was a veteran from the Army of the 
 Potomac and had been in all its battles from 1861 up to 
 September 1864. Col. Bell was killed at the head of his 
 brigade just as it entered the fort. Curtis who was badly 
 wounded in the face, was one of the first men on the parapet, 
 and he remained with us until the end of the battle. He 
 was six feet four inches in height, and a central figure in 
 the close fighting at the traverses. General Ames exposed 
 himself freely while directing the combat and encouraging 
 the troops. 
 
 The troops who made the assault were of the old 10th 
 corps and they had become used to the help of the navy at 
 Fort Wagner in 1863, but the blue jackets had never before 
 so honored us. The brave fellows couldn't understand how 
 it was that common looking infantry in soiled uniforms had 
 outfought them. They were told that we had learned the 
 tricks of the trade. 
 
 The loss in officers was remarkable, fully equal, in pro- 
 portion to the numbers engaged, to that at Franklin, Tenn., 
 ;where it exceeded that of any other battle of the war. 
 
 In some of the smaller regiments, hardly an officer 
 escaped wounds or death. In the 97th Pennsylvania, as has 
 been said, of the seven officers engaged, two were killed and 
 the other five were wounded. It was a battle in which the 
 officers led and were followed by men who would go where 
 their officers dared to lead. 
 
 The men who won this victory have been referred to 
 as veterans. Yet all were young. Terry himself was hardly 
 forty, Ames, if he was thirty, was but little more, Curtis 
 hardly thirty-five. Bell was twenty-eight, Pennypacker 
 twenty-one. Moore was twenty-five, while the staff officers 
 and those of the line were nearly all not more than twenty- 
 three. 
 
 13 
 
Of these young men, — veterans in war, — only a few 
 now survive. Thirty-three hundred made the assault; not 
 more than two hundred are now living. The war was near- 
 ing its end when the battle was fought, and many a youth 
 was looking forward to a speedy return to his home, to 
 whose name at the next morning's roll call, the answer was 
 returned, "Killed in the Assault." And in life's stern con- 
 flict since, nearly all the rest have gone down. 
 
 The youngest superior officer and almost the youngest 
 man of that veteran division is still alive and comparatively 
 well, at his home 300 South Tenth Street, Philadelphia; I 
 refer to the gallant commander of the Second brigade, Col. 
 Galusha Pennypacker, now Major General U. S. A., retired, 
 who in the words of his commander spoken years after the 
 battle, "was the real hero of Fort Fisher," and who for 
 fifty years has passed no day free from pain on account of 
 the desperate wounds received that day as his part of the 
 price that was paid for the victory. 
 
 Curtis passed away some two years ago, and Bell fell 
 and died in the assault at the head of his men. The fame of 
 both is secure, for no account of the battle could be written 
 without most prominent mention of their conspicuous gal- 
 lantry, and no survivor of the desperate fighting at the 
 traverses, could ever forget the leadership of Curtis. 
 
 The crisis of the day came, when the small first brigade, 
 having lost the impetus of its first rush, was barely keeping 
 its foothold on the west end of the parapet, while the enemy 
 having repulsed the men of the navy at the sea angle, were 
 moving a heavy column to drive out the intrusive infantry. 
 
 Then it was that Pennypacker, having carried the pali- 
 sades towards the river, the sally port, and taken four hun- 
 dred prisoners, wheeled the head of his large brigade to 
 their left and advanced to support Curtis. He was barely 
 in time; for Curtis' exhausted men were shaken in their 
 morale, and the sight of the closely approaching enemy who 
 were closing up to attack, caused some hesitation among 
 Pennypacker's troops, and they paused in their advance. 
 
 It was here that the commander of the second brigade 
 saved the day and became the hero of Fort Fisher. He saw 
 that only example could carry the men forward, and with 
 the colors of the 97th in his hand, and calling on his men 
 to follow, he charged up the fifth traverse. His men 
 swarmed after him, and though the leader fell, they broke 
 
 14 
 
up the enemy's intended attack, turned the tide of battle at 
 the traverses, and continued to gain ground there until the 
 fort was won. 
 
 Major General Pennypacker served during the entire 
 Civil War, was Major of his regiment, the 97th Pennsyl- 
 vania; at nineteen, its Colonel at twenty, and Brigadier 
 General U. S. V. at twenty-two. After the close of the Civil 
 War, he was made Colonel of the 16th U. S. Infantry, and 
 remained on the active list of the regular army until retired 
 on account of wounds about 1883 with the Brevet of Major 
 General. 
 
 General Pennypacker was awarded the Congressional 
 Medal of Honor for distinguished bravery in this battle. 
 This is the highest distinction that can be conferred upon an 
 American soldier. 
 
 None but a soldier who served under him and followed 
 wherever he led can appreciate his magnificent soldiership, 
 which joined to his kindness to his inferiors, and to his spot- 
 less integrity made him indeed the officer without fear and 
 without reproach. 
 
 Our prisoners felt the sting of defeat, but they were 
 seasoned veterans; they had bravely done their duty and 
 they indulged in no unavailing regrets. The fortune of war 
 had decided against them and the feeling among them 
 seemed to be one of relief that their task was done. In 
 truth, the battle was fought in the shadow of the swiftly 
 approaching end; both sides were feeling that there must 
 soon be peace on all the continental wrestling floor, though 
 neither could know how soon the curtain was to fall at 
 Appomattox. 
 
 This premonition that the end was near did not weaken 
 the Confederate fighting during the assault, but it did affect 
 the conduct of both captors and captured, for that night 
 when at ten o'clock, the surrender was announced, the fra- 
 ternization of Federal and Confederate was immediate and 
 complete. This was so in a marked degree, the next day 
 while the prisoners, surrounded by a cordon of guards were 
 waiting on the beach to go aboard the transports that were 
 to carry them North. 
 
 Guards seemed unnecessary ; there then took place that 
 which was one of the very first reunions of the Blue and 
 the Gray. It was a presage of that greater reunion which 
 
 15 
 
was soon to take place at Appomattox and an evidence that 
 the warring sections were even then drawing together. 
 
 Several of the captured regiments had been among our 
 antagonists at Fort Wagner in 1863, and an exchange of 
 experiences went on while our rations were being shared 
 with the prisoners; they appreciated those Union rations, 
 for those of the Confederacy in January 1865, were poor 
 in quality and meager in quantity. Some had been captured 
 with the fort and they were seen to be composed mostly of 
 coarse corn meal, with some hard tack of poor quality. 
 They had but little meat and not an ounce of sugar or coffee. 
 It was almost pathetic to see how those iron-sided veterans 
 took to the Union coffee. As they drank it, they were heard 
 to say, "This is the first we've tasted since early in 1862." 
 Those men had marched, toiled and fought during the last 
 year of the war on rations which might have caused a 
 mutiny had they been served to the Union Army. 
 
 We had long known this in a general way, but here was 
 the fact before our eyes and there was not a man among 
 the victors who did not thereby get an access of admiration 
 for the gallant men whom the fortune of war had made our 
 prisoners. 
 
 As to which side was right and which was wrong, the 
 question was not discussed after the battle was over. It 
 had been discussed on the deadly parapet and over the 
 bloody traverses. Our brave foemen believed they were 
 right ; we on our part felt sure that the Union ought to win, 
 but rough veterans, as both victors and vanquished were, 
 each was careful of the others personal feelings. The 
 traditions of the Southern gentleman even there cropped out 
 while we, on our part out of pure respect and kindly feeling 
 emulated their conduct. But all were real soldiers and 
 always the .bravest are the gentlest. 
 
 As I recall the campaign in Virginia in 1864, though 
 the fighting was hard and bitter, there was a constant 
 lessening of animosity among the troops on both sides. And 
 with this there went a steadily growing respect for each 
 other as soldiers. This was realized at Fort Fisher as never 
 before; there, Federal and Confederate mingled as brother 
 Americans; there was not a trace of bitterness. We did 
 not see it then, but the new Union, cemented by the toil and 
 blood of the men who fought the war was already in the 
 hearts of victors and vanquished at Fort Fisher. 
 
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