Going up and down either side of the river. On the other side we have the atlantic ocean. And over here, we have complete mastery of any ship for miles around, until the curve of the earth came into play. In this case, we could literally see ships moving back and forth. We could tell how many blockade ships were out in front. We could see blockade runners. So we could actually protect them. From here, men could stand up on top to look in front of the fort and where all these trees have been for now. You could literally see the United States Army Soldiers getting ready for your attack that would come in here. From this vantage point, you can understand how impressionive this fort was this was the largest fortification, Coastal Defense fortification during the confederacy in the civil war. Started in 1861, union forces came, launched an amphibious operation. We have what remains of the fortification, only 10 . This fort was over a mile and a half long, and was pretty impressive to the point that it was almost psychologically as tough to think about attacking it as it was in attacking it. This was the largest amphibious operation undertaken by the United States up until june 6th of 1944 which was the invasion of france the United States had never undertaken any kind of activity. Today it is still important to our current military to try to understand, how did this come off how did they supply these troops, how do you land 10,000 troops on an enemy beach and capture a fixed fortified position. Its about 32 miles up stream from the mouth of from the south mouth of the cape fear river. Ft. Fisher was built next to new inlet literally this river could control trade moving up and down and was the major port for North Carolina for leading up until 1865. The Transit Route was important for the confederacy. During the war of 1812 there was a battery that was here but nothing was ever truly build of any subsist answer until the south seceded and North Carolina left the union in 1861, they came down here and started building ft. Fisher. This fort was to help protect the fort of wilmington. By august of 1863, this was the primary port for most blockade runners coming in when they came into wilmington, they could offloot their supplies on to trains in the town of wilmington. And they could directly head north to richmond. There were a series of defensive fortifications that were posted all along the river. There was fort holmes, fort johnston. You had ft. Anderson, three miles up river. Numerous batteries all over the area. That was meant to keep the union fleet. They literally ran into the mouth of everything and sailed right past the defensive positions. When ft. Fisher was first constructed or started, it was april 1861, there was not a lot of organizational capacity to this nobody thought about what was supposed to be the basis. Five different gun in placements. They were not interconnected, they were not interlocking. They were just sort of poundses of dirt with artillery pieces on them. In july 4th, 1862, a new commander came to the fort. What he decided to do was to take these series of batteries and connect them through. He took what was already existing here, make sure he had enough soldiers to literally start their job if they werent working the guns or learning how to be a soldier, their job was to shovel and move sand to build the fort thats behind me. That for ttification literal this was supposed to be very impr impregnable. You would normally think youre going to have a round or octagonal shaped fort, this was shaped like a number 7 or the letter l this was made so the majority of the land or sea face was actually stretched about three quarters of a mile had multiple cannon replacements on it. That was meant sao that any attack coming from the north could actually be stopped and put into retreat, which is what happened in december of 1864 builders of the fort were mainly the confederate soldiers. This was not the best garrison life, for the soldiers who were garrison here, they all came from the surrounding area. Most of these guys were attached to the fort, they wouldnt be going to virginia to fight the war, they wouldnt be sent elsewhere to fight. They lived in this area. Many of them knew this as one of the worst places they could ever go. Many of the soldiers complained about the sand being blown in their food in their bunks, in the actions of their weapons. That was a major problem. They actually liked to call this the kingdom of mosquitos, because it was so bad to be living here. These men who are here, literally trained every day. One of the major problems, it was chronically understaffed. Life here was pretty easy, there were times when some of the soldiers would go over the fence and go back home. Especially during the fall to bring in the harvest, and then theyd come back, no harm, no foul. And that was until 1864 when rumors were starting to build up that there was going to be an attack in this area. They literally started clamping down on anybody going awol. If ft. Fisher fell, this was the keystone to the entire river defenses. They came back december 1864, landed about two regiments on sure. You would pull a ship into a harbor, you would pull up to a dock, drop the ramp everybody walks off nice and dry. They didnt have boats that were meant for landing on beaches. You had to jump over the side of these boats to splash into the surf. Theyre literally going to be dumped over into the water. As the boats are coming into shore, the waves would dump these boats over. Throwing all the debris, the men, the equipment out into the ocean where they would have to pick everything up and walk ashore. And promptly try to dry everything out. If you can imagine these muskets that are being used, their single shot muzzle loading, all your ammunition is completely wet. Your gun is completely worthless this this is a major undertaking for these soldiers. When they got to the fort, they realized it was so strong, it was not going to be able to be attacked and captured. The order to withdraw was given all the soldiers were actually sent back on the boats, sent back to virginia. It was a major blow for grant and lincoln, the first attack failed. They realize that to stop the war, wilmington had to be captured and the country would not allow another failure at ft. Fisher and it would have to be captured no matter what. A new commander was chosen. They come down here in january 1865, theres a threeday bombardment of this fortification. The largest bam barredment in the american civil war, they will launch a two pronged attack, the navy doesnt want to be left out of the honor of capturing ft. Fisher, they attempt to use marines and Navy Personnel on the beach for the army, they actually start over the river road, and they have a brand new strategy as to let the army pound the ft. Into submission, not only that, but to start targeting specific locations, the gun chambers, the pal satisfied wooden fence wall, and what they do, they ended up putting holes into the fence wall, so when the army is ready to attack, the gentlemen can run through the bridge in the front of the ft. Go through the swamp, the holes in the pal satisfieded wooden fence. There were 350 confederate defenders on the riverside of the fort to face 3,000 federal troops who 4 been through the worst of virginia fighting. These defenders were all from the local areas. They never fired a shot in anger, had never heard one fired in anger. This was a new experience for them. We are at the river road sally port, this was the main entrance to ft. Fisher. There was a road that ran from wilmington down here. As federal forces were attacking this position, a lone 12 pound cannon was here. It was to load canister and face shot, that would have been in front of the fortification, you have a kmarnd of anything trying to move from the front side of that fort. For the gunners that were here, it worked out great. What happened they were starting to get picked off one by one. To show up at this gun was instant death, as the gunners were all dead. Union forces were able to push them out of the way and into this area. This was the main focal point for a lot of these union forces that were trying to push into this fortification to capture it. They started coming up over sides of the fort as well into the marsh. Up on top of the fort, this would have been the first traverse of shepherds battery. In here would have been a 32 pound rifled cannon. You would have two cannons in this location. This gun is a reproduction, we do fire this gun for programs a lot. It would have a 32 pound iron ball about two miles maximum range it is still loud enough that people many miles away from here can here this gun going off. During the january attack, what occurred, they literally started gathering at the front of the fort as they were in here trying to work these guns and trying to defend this site, men would start appearing at the front of the fort coming over the top and the sides. The defenders would be surrounded by union troops to be going through hand to hand combat inside this traverse. During the december attack, the union navy was actually shooting at every single building they could find the garrison lost every single building that was here during this december attack. After the navy and army retreated. They were left to find tents to live in. This is not one of the best areas to live in during the december time period. The men started living inside the bomb proofs, this door would actually go into a bomb proof. Those were probably 10 feet wide, 15 feet long and five feet tall. Inside that bomb proof would be all the black powder in the material needed for the guns that were actually on top of the fort. The men were living among all the black powder, the ammunition, it would have been extremely cramped in there. During the january attack prior to the attack actually happening. These men lived inside these bomb proofs during the day. And only maybe came out during the night when the shelling had stopped to try to repair the fort. With the attack on fort fisher from these union troops. The fort finally falls january 15th, 1865, so all totaled there will be 72 medal of honor recipients from the actions here at fort fisher, in december or january. For these men, theyve actually seen the worst fighting the civil war can have. Many of these men who had been at petersburg and been in the crater referenced this as the worst fighting they had ever been a part of. They felt this was worse than even being at the crater. For these men, they wore this as a badge of honor. It would be as if someone would meet someone today who landed at omaha beach during dday. Was in the current afghan or iraq wars. This was a place of honor. This was something that people would hold in high asteam that you would actually fought at ft. Fisher and survived. There are three other battles with more medal of honor recipients in it. We are number 4. Which makes this a very hollowed ground. Hallowed ground. You can watch this and other programs on the history of communities across the country at cspan. Org citiestour. This is American History tv only on cspan3. For the first time in nearly a century, a Solar Eclipse is working its way across the u. S. And were simultaneous casting nasas tv coverage now on cspan. And at 4 00 p. M. Eastern we want to hear from you about the Solar Eclipse. Join us live on cspan. Cspans voices from the road at the National Conference of state legislatures summit in boston asking attendees whats the most important issue to your state. Whats really important to our state is that washington makes sure we maintain health care for the poor, the elderly and the unfirm. We have to make sure if we replace obamacare, we replace it with something smart and reasonable. An issue that we really are struggling with right now is property tax. And because of the fast increase in real estate property, particularly rural areas, our Rural Farmers are struggling to pay a very high property tax. How do we balance that with whats going on in the property tax and the needs for our schools. Im on the appropriations committee, so its one of those issues that were really dealing with right now is how do we balance out and make equitable the property tax across our state. And the most important issue facing our constituents today is unfortunately the opioid crisis. Id like to talk about children and how they are the collateral damage. One day they will need therapy to explain how theyve lost their education, how theyve lost their family members and how theyve lost other loved ones. Basically were talking about a neglect issue. We need more money and we need a declaration of an emergency. Thank you. Seems to me the most important issue facing our state is the partisanship that keeps us from making any progress. I do not believe in putting allegiance to a party over my oath of office to the people and if we can leave the d and r out, theres no issue we cant tackle and defeat. At least thats my take on it. Thank you. One of our issues is to make sure that the medical cannabis bill will adhere to its policy of having representation of minorities and women. This is an issue that we have encountered and we feel its very important and will be addressed in the 2018 legislative session. Voices from the road on cspan. Now we take a look at the leadership of Union General George Gordon meade during the civil war including his role in the pivotal battle of gettysburg. This panel was part of the annual Civil War Institute conference at Gettysburg College. This runs about an hour and 20 minutes. Good morning everybody. Im pete carmichael, professor of history at Gettysburg College and also professor of the Civil War Institute. I welcome all of you to our panel on George Gordon meade. I
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