accorded to those great soldiers, whose fortune it has been to gather us harvest, I still feel it my duty to claim a modest wreath for that y of West Virginia, which, through so much toil, danger and suffer1 in preparing the field for the reapers. eneral, with high respect, your obedient servant, DAVID H. STROTHER, Late Colonel of Volunteer Cavalry and Chief of Staff. neral DAVID HUNTER. py: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. T GENERAL'S OFFICE, November 18, 1865. Iajor General B. F. Butler of operations against Fort Fisher, 1864. Eadquarters Department of Virginia and N. CAROLINA, Army of the James, in the field, January 3, 1865. : On the 7th of December last, in obedience to your orders, I moved out sixty-five hundred efficient men, consisting of General Ames's The 24th corps, and General Paine's division of the 25th corps, and of Major General Weitzel, to an encampment near Bermuda. h the troops embarked for Fortress Monroe. h, Friday, I reported to Rear-Admiral Porter that the army portion int expedition directed against Wilmington was ready to proceed. d there Saturday the 10th, Sunday the 11th, and Monday the 12th. th Rear-Admiral Porter informed me that the naval fleet would sail but would be obliged to put into Beaufort to take on board ammue monitors. dition having become the subject of remark, fearing lest its destinaget to the enemy, in order to divert from it all attention, on the Tuesday the 13th, at 3 o'clock, I ordered the transport fleet to proPotomac during the day to Matthias Point, so as to be plainly visicouts and signal men of the enemy on the northern neck, and to course at night and anchor under the lee of Cape Charles. iven the navy thirty-six hours start, at 12 o'clock noon of the 14th, I joined the transport fleet off Cape Henry, and put to sea, arrivace of rendezvous off New inlet, near Fort Fisher, on the evening Thursday. waited for the navy Friday the 16th, Saturday the 17th, and 18th, during which days we had the finest possible weather and it sea. ening of the 18th Admiral Porter came from Beaufort to the place s. That evening the sea became rough, and on Monday, the 19th, rang up freshly, so that it was impossible to land troops; and by f Admiral Porter, communicated to me by letter, I directed the et to rendezvous at Beaufort. This was a matter of necessity, bensport fleet, being coaled and watered for ten days, had already ime, to wit: from the 9th, the day on which we were ready to sail, a coaling and watering the transport fleet at ly of coal, was enabled to remain at the place board of twelve hundred men, and General that he would co-operate with him. xe, of my staff, from Beaufort, on the fast-sailto Admiral Porter to inform him that on the be at the rendezvous with the transport fleet, e attack, the weather permitting. of the 24th I came in sight of Fort Fisher, in bombarding it, the powder-vessel having vious about one o'clock. anged with Admiral Porter to commence the unboats as early as eight o'clock the next fire of the Half-Moon and Flag-pond Hill batare up the shore some two or three miles quine that he had silenced the guns of Fort at were so, to run by the fort into Cape Fear and and hold the beach without liability of unboats, (the Tallahassee being seen in the iral Farragut, even, had never taken a fort it off from all prospect of re-enforcements, as , and that no casemated fort had been silenced That if the admiral would put his ships in him across the beach, as we had proposed to That at least the blockade of Wilmington we did not capture the fort. To that the adbly lose a boat by torpedoes if he attempted might lose five hundred men by the assault, in the balance, even in a money point of view, The admiral declined going by, and e men. at essential element of success. - Sunday, Captain Glisson, commanding the orted the batteries silenced and his vessels in my flag-ship, stood in within eight hundred ommenced debarking. The landing was suche reconnoitring party just landed could hold a force with which an assault might be tis, who deserves well for his gallantry and is brigade within a few hundred yards of Fort battery and its men, who were taken off by o within seventy-five yards of the fort, proeen thrown up in such form as to give cover, t in their bomb-proofs by the fire of the navy, ous, their shells bursting over the work with this time we lost ten men wounded on the e fleet. few hundred yards of the fo No material damage to th With the garrison kept position; but the shells of proofs, would keep my troo fully manned. Lieutenant Walling, of pressed up to the edge of down by a shell from the na that any soldier entered the from the fort and his horse t In the mean time the rem and eighteen men and ten c and other prisoners. Fro brigades of Hoke's division Richmond, and were then skirmishers were then act division had come the night if they had not already arri I learned, also, that thes Knowing the strength o outside of the works larger In the mean time the wea to roll in so that the landin This opinion coincided w While superintending th Working with what dil again on board before the or even the sending of su eleven o'clock the next da y a wet ditch some fifteen feet wide. I was protected from being yan assaulting force by a stockade which extended from the fort the one side, and from the marshes of Cape Fear river to the e other. al damage to the fort as a defensive work had been done. heavy guns bore up the beach, protected from the fire of the navy eight or ten feet high, which were undoubtedly bomb-proof shelters son. garrison kept within their bomb-proofs it was easy to maintain this t the shells of the navy, which kept the enemy in their bombI keep my troops out. When those ceased falling the parapet was 7. t Walling, of the one hundred and forty-second New York, o the edge of the ditch and captured a flag which had been cut hell from the navy. It is a mistake, as was at first reported to me, lier entered the fort. An orderly was killed about a third of a mile and his horse taken. an time the remainder of Ames's division had captured two hundred men and ten commissioned officers of the North Carolina reserves risoners. From them I learned that Kirkland's and Hagood's Hoke's division had left the front of the army of the James, near and were then within two miles of the rear of my forces, and their were then actually engaged, and that the remainder of Hoke's come the night before to Wilmington, and were then on the march, not already arrived. also, that these troops had left Richmond on Tuesday, the 20th. the strength of Hoke's division, I found a force opposed to me e works larger than my own. an time the weather assumed a threatening aspect. The surf began that the landing became difficult. At this time General Weitzel ne that to assault the work, in his judgment, and in that of the exficers of his command who had been on the skirmish line, with any success, was impossible. ion coincided with my own, and much as I regretted the necessity g the attempt, yet the path of duty was plain. Not so strong a work er had been taken by assault during the war, and I had to guide me ice of Port Hudson, with its slaughtered thousands in the repulsed the double assault of Fort Wagner, where thousands were sacrificed t to take a work less strong than Fisher, after it had been subnore continued and fully as severe fire. And in neither of the inive mentioned had the assaulting force in its rear, as I had, an army y larger than itself. e ordered that no assault should be made, and that the troops should perintending the preparations for this the fire of the navy ceased. e guns of the fort were fully manned, and a sharp fire of musketry, anister swept the plain over which the column must have advanced, mish line was returning. with what diligence we could, it was impossible to get the troops ard before the sea ran so high as to render further re-embarcation, sending of supplies ashore, impossible. I lay by the shore until ck the next day, Monday, the 26th, when having made all proper i for Fortress Monroe, in obedience to my ineneral. prisoners captured, that the supposition upon cted the expedition, that Wilmington had been teral Sherman, was correct. That at the time ngton, there were less than four hundred men d less than a thousand within twenty miles. good weather, the 16th, 17th and 18th, waitad the further delay from the terrible storm of for troops to be brought from Richmond, three re or on the road. ant General to me did not contemplate a siege; plies for such a contingency. -, for which the foresight of the commander of isen, to wit: the larger re-enforcement of the e fact that the navy had exhausted their supdment, left me with no alternative but to reof the James. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the 16th, 17th e of the failure of the expedition. suggest blame to the navy for their delay of one of the reasons which do or do not justify sufficient. ention of the Lieutenant General the excellent ers and men, which was all that could be de to Captain Glisson, of the Santiago de Cuba, . in which he covered our landing; to Captain rompt assistance and the excellent gunnery the shores of all opposers at the moment of ar, of the navy, having in charge the navy ing, deserves great credit for the energy and boats through the rolling surf. Especial comneral Graham and the officers and men of his n of his boats and crews for landing, and the which they all labored in re-embarking the f the 25th and the days following. For this ing the campaign since the first of May, which e notice of the Lieutenant General in my offibut earnestly recommend General Graham for ed by us was three hundred, including twelve light guns, and six caissons. nan drowned, two men killed, one officer capthrough our pickets, and ten men wounded shells of the navy. th commendation the acts of my own personal tw it will agree to the cool courage and daring aide-de-camp, in landing on the night of the mbarcation on the 27th. nd the operations, I beg leave to refer you to tzel, commanding the division landed, which report is respectfully su Lieutenant General U. S. Commanding Armies Official copy: ADJUTANT GENERAL'S O Major General A. H. GENERAL: I have the ho operations which resulted in Fort Caswell, and the other On the 2d instant I receiv take command of the troop picked men from the second General (now Brevet Major the third division of the 25tl Charles J. Paine, 1,400 me of the 24th army corps, und Abbott, 7th New Hampshire with four 3-inch guns, and li light 12-pounder guns. I w the lines on the north side of In obedience to these order The transports did not a The embarcation of the r I went down the river p 80 W General A. H. Terry's report of the capture of Fort Fisher. HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES ON FEDERAL POINT, N.C., January 25, 1865. I have the honor to submit the following detailed report of the hich resulted in the capture of Fort Fisher and the occupation of , and the other works at the mouth of the Cape Fear river. instant I received from the Lieutenant General, in person, orders to d of the troops destined for the movement. They were 3,300 From the second division of the 24th army corps, under Brigadier v Brevet Major General) Adelbert Ames, the same number from ision of the 25th army corps, under command of Brigadier General Paine, 1,400 men from the second brigade of the first division of army corps, under Colonel (now Brevet Brigadier General) J. C. New Hampshire volunteers, the 16th New York independent battery, nch guns, and light battery E, 3d United States artillery, with six der guns. I was instructed to move them from their positions in the north side of the James river to Bermuda landing, in time to eir embarcation on transport vessels at sunrise on the 4th instant. ce to these orders, the movement commenced at noon of the 3d introops arrived at the landing at sunset, and there bivouacked for ports did not arrive as soon as they were expected. The first of its appearance late in the afternoon of the 4th. One of them, the of too heavy draught to come up the James; Curtis's brigade of ion was therefore placed on river steamboats and sent down the ansferred to her. rcation of the remainder of the force commenced at sunset of the completed at noon of the 5th instant; each vessel, as soon as it vas sent to Fortress Monroe, and at 9 o'clock p. m. of the 5th the as collected in Hampton roads. The troops were all in heavy ler, with four days' rations from the morning of the 4th in their nd forty rounds of ammunition in their boxes. No horses, wagons s were taken; the caissons of the artillery were left behind, but in adammunition in the limber chests, 150 rounds per gun, in packingembarked. wn the river personally with the Lieutenant General, and on the from him additional instructions, and the information that orders en for the embarcation of a siege train, to consist of twenty 30ott guns, four 100-pounder Parrotts, and twenty coehorn r W T |