CHAPTER XXVIII.

CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENTS IN NORTH CAROLINA.

As soon as Sherman had reached Savannah, reported the condition of his army, developed his plans, and received the assent of General Grant to his proposal to march through the Carolinas, instead of moving by water directly to the support of the armies before Richmond, as had been originally intended and ordered, the lieutenant-general proceeded to put in motion the parallel combination necessary to insure the success of the campaign.

Sherman's objective being Goldsboro', the first step to be taken obviously was to secure possession of Wilmington, and the control of the Cape Fear River, so that supplies might, if needful, be sent up that stream, and likewise in order that no formidable and strongly fortified garrison might be left to menace the flank and rear of the moving column.

In anticipation of the occasion for such an operation, and desiring to secure control of the mouth of the Cape Fear River, at a time when attention was less strongly directed in that quarter than would be the case when the execution of his plans should be more fully developed, General Grant had, in December, sent a large force from the Army of the James, under Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, and the Navy Department had dispatched a powerful fleet, under Rear-Admiral David D. Porter, to co-operate in the reduction, first of Fort Fisher and its adjacent works on Federal Point, and afterwards of Wilmington.

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, the commander of the

Army of the James, accompanied the land forces, and assumed control of their movements. After numerous delays and misunderstandings, the navy opened a furious bombardment on the afternoon of the 24th of December, 1864, and kept it up until nightfall, and all Christmas-day, at the rate of about one shot in every two seconds. During the afternoon of the 25th, under cover of this fire, a portion of the troops landed and made a reconnoissance of the Confederate works; but a storm coming up, General Butler, after consulting with General Weitzel, and ascertaining that the opinion of that officer coincided with his own, ordered the troops already landed to re-embark, and, on the 27th, withdrew his command on the transport fleet and returned to the James River. Admiral Porter, however, decided to remain and continue the naval operations as opportunity might offer.

General Grant immediately selected Major-General Alfred Howe Terry to command the expedition, and directed him to renew the attempt without delay, while the enemy were evidently counting on its abandonment. The choice was an excellent one. General Terry was a young, brave, and accomplished officer, who had entered the army in the earliest period of the war as colonel of the Tenth Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers; and by active service, zeal, fidelity, and gallantry, had, step by step, won his promotion to his present position, for which, by study and careful attention to duty, he had taken pains to qualify himself. The troops placed under his orders for the present movement, including those which had taken part in the previous failure, consisted of a division of thirty-three hundred picked men from Ord's twenty-fourth army corps, under Brigadier-General Adelbert Ames; a division of like strength from Weitzel's twenty-fifth corps, under Brigadier-General Charles J. Paine; a brigade fourteen hundred strong, also from Ord's corps, commanded by Colonel J. C. Abbott, of the Seventh New Hampshire; and two detached batteries of light artillery.

The expedition sailed from Hampton Roads on the 6th of January, 1865, but, owing to a severe storm, followed by con

tinuous unfavorable weather, did not reach its destination off Federal Point and begin the disembarkation until the morning of the 13th. By three o'clock that afternoon, however, through a heavy surf, eight thousand men, with three days' rations in their haversacks and forty rounds of ball cartridges in their boxes, had been landed on the beach above the fort, under cover of the admirable disposition and effective fire of Admiral Porter's fleet, and every thing was in readiness for an attack. After some time lost in endeavoring to find a suitable point for the establishment, across the peninsula whereon Fort Fisher is situated, of a line of defence against reinforcements seeking to aid the garrison from the direction of Wilmington, by two o'clock on the 14th, Paine, with his own division and two brigades of Ames' division, reached a favorable position for that purpose, and by eight o'clock had thrown up a secure line of intrenchments. During the day the enemy's works were thoroughly reconnoitred, and General Terry determined on his plan of attack for the morrow. Into this Admiral Porter

entered heartily.

Accordingly, at eight o'clock on the morning of the 15th of January, all the fleet, except one division left to support the line of defence across the neck, went into action, and opened a powerful and accurate fire upon the fort. Withdrawing the two brigades of Ames' division, and leaving Paine to hold this defensive line with his own division and Abbott's brigade, at twenty-five minutes past three o'clock in the afternoon Terry gave the order for Ames to move to the assault of the western front. Simultaneously, by a concerted signal, the direction of the fire of the navy was changed, and Curtis' brigade of Ames' division sprang to the assault, while a battalion of marines and seamen, under Commander Breese of the navy, rushed forward to storm the northeast bastion. The naval assault was soon repulsed with heavy loss, but, aided by a well-directed and effective flank fire of the fleet, continued against the fort up to six o'clock P. M., Ames, afterwards re-enforced by Abbott's brigade and the Twenty-seventh United States Colored regiment, of Paine's division, succeeded in effecting an entrance

into the work, and, fighting hand to hand across the embankments, from traverse to traverse, over nine in succession, by nine o'clock at night the last opposition of the enemy died out, the entire work was in undisputed possession of General Terry and his gallant troops, and the garrison were prisoners.

Hoke's division of the Confederate army came down from Wilmington during the fight, and observed Paine's line, but did not attack it.

On the 16th and 17th of January, the enemy blew up Fort Caswell, and abandoned it and the extensive works on Smith's Island, at Smithville and Reeve's Point. These points were immediately occupied by General Terry, and the fleet took up position in the river and along the coast, to defend his flanks.

Thus the mouth of Cape Fear River was in the secure possession of the combined land and naval forces under General Terry and Admiral Porter. The next step was to take Wilmington.

In the mean while, other troops were moving in the same direction from the far west. As soon as the crushing defeat of Hood, and the substantial destruction of the offensive power of his army by Thomas, had liberated a portion of the Union armies defending Tennessee and Kentucky for active operation in other quarters, the lieutenant-general had detached Schofield with his Twenty-third Corps, and ordered him to Annapolis. The order to this effect was received by General Schofield on the 14th of January, at Clifton, on the Tennessee River, where water transportation had been collected to move the command to Eastport, in accordance with previous plans, and on the following day the movement began.

The troops moved with their artillery and horses, but without wagons, by steam transports to Cincinnati, Ohio, and thence by railway to Washington and Alexandria, Virginia; a second order from Washington having, in the mean time, changed the destination from Annapolis. Although in midwinter, and the weather unusually severe, even for that season, the movement was effected without delay, accident, or suffer

ing on the part of the troops, and by the 31st of January the whole command had arrived at Washington and Alexandria.

At the latter place great and unavoidable delay was caused by the freezing of the Potomac, which rendered its navigation impossible much of the time for several weeks. Meanwhile General Schofield went to Fort Monroe, met General Grant, and proceeded with him to the mouth of Cape Fear River to consult with Admiral Porter and General Terry relative to future operations. On their return to Washington an order was issued from the War Department creating the Department of North Carolina, and assigning General Schofield to its command, and he now received General Grant's instructions charging him with the conduct of the campaign in that department, and indicating its plan and objects.

As soon as it became possible to navigate the Potomac, Schofield started from Alexandria with Major-General Cox's division of the Twenty-third Corps, reached the mouth of Cape Fear River on the 9th of February, and landed upon the peninsula near Fort Fisher.

The enemy still occupied Fort Anderson on the west bank of the river, with a collateral line running to a large swamp about three-quarters of a mile distant, and a line opposite Fort Anderson running across the peninsula from Cape Fear River to Masonboro' Sound. This position was impregnable against direct attack, and could be turned only by crossing Masonboro' Sound above the enemy's left, or passing around the swamp which covered his right.

The force which General Schofield then had was evidently too small for so extended a movement as either of these; but time being all-important, he determined to make the attempt without waiting for the arrival of reinforcements.

On the 11th of February, he pushed forward General Terry's line, supported by General Cox's division, drove in the enemy's pickets, and intrenched in a new position, close enough to the enemy's line to compel him to hold the latter in force. He then made preparations to send a fleet of navy boats and pontoons by sea to a point on the beach above the enemy's posi