And nearly surrounded by americas allies on the ground. A rag tag army known as the Syrian Democratic forces. The extremists are losing territory quickly, some times leaving their weapons behind. Under isis control, raqqa became infamous for depraved acts of violence. American journalists were beheaded nearby. This child was captured holding a severed head. And even now that raqqa is under siege, isis is still deadly. When part of our team moved forward, they were spotted by an isis sniper. Our producer, omarabdul kadir had no choice but make a run for cover. They were safe, pinned down behind a concrete wall. Darkness before we move. We cant move from street to street. Because of the snipers. Said, this man who has been fighting isis for four years. And then, came word there was a suspected isis suicide car bomber nearby. 400 yards away the fighters told us they lost five soldiers to one of the bombs the day before. They are worried that a suicide car bomber is coming towards the poin
Destination for people looking to experience the citys history and nearby beaches. With the help of our Charter Communication partners for the next 90 minutes will learn about e citys history from local authors. Weegin with author Chris Bonneville on for interested in the battle for wilmington during the civil war. [inaudible] were actually standing on the path of the crest of fort emerson. This was the largest confederate fort in the lower cape fear interior that guarded the western land approaches in the river approaches to the seaport of wilmington. The fort was initially started in march of 1862, construction was ongoing throughout the war and there were still working on it when it was attacked in february of 1865. The fort was built on top of the old seaport of brunswick. This was the leading seaport on the Cape Fear River in colonial times, in fact it was the first enduring settlement on the Cape Fear River. After the American Revolution brunswick faded into oblivion and the enti
Whitewash, weve arty been a progressive city, as one radio host that you cant put something behind you if you dont put in front of you first in 1898 wilmington had achieved a very status. You have to understand that this was a huge slaveholding area during the civil war because the river was a block away. All the plantations in North Carolina were along e rir. Roanoke, cape fear and a huge concentration of 330,000 slaves in North Carolina in 1860 were right here in the Cape Fear River valley. There is a fear of her uprising. There was a terrible nightmare of the landed white gentry. They had very repressive laws against both free blacks and slaves. When general sherman came and invaded North Carolina from the south he liberated some 25000 enslaved blacks with the army. He gutted the head of navigation with cape fear. He put all those people on votes and mule trains and brought them to wilmington where they were then processed to the freedmens bureau. Many stayed here and in a 1998 wilm
You have a commanding view for miles. On the other side, we have the ocean and over here we have everythingstery of came intoil the earth play. We can see ships moving back and forth. Runnersven see blockade that are too close to fort fisher so we can actually protect. Rom here, men can stand on top and where these trees are now, they have been clearcut for half a mile. You can see the United States Army Soldiers massing to get ready for your attack that would actually come in here. From this vantage point, you have to understand how attractive psychologically this fort actually was. Largest earthwork fortification in the confederacy in the american civil war. It started in 1861. Never truly completed the union forces launched an captureus operation to fort fisher. We have what remains of the fortification, only about 10 from this fort, a mile and a half long, and had 44 differing cannons and was fairly impressive to the point that it was almost psychologically as tough to think about
Left to right, hero intervals. [military commands] we are actually standing on the parapet or the crest of fort anderson, which was the largest confederate fort in the lowercase fear in the interior lower cape fear in the interior. It had western land approaches and river approaches to the seaport of wilmington. They got good intelligent that the attack on wilmington was coming october 1864. They knew that the attack was planned against fort fisher, and so for andersons garrison was largely depleted to send reinforcements to fort fisher. You might have had a company or two of troops here. There would be two attacks on fort fisher. 1864. S in two and a half weeks later, they returned with a slightly scaleddown Naval Task Force, more soldiers, and this time they were determined to capture the fort. Bombardment,s of the second of the civil war, union forces attacked late in the afternoon january 15, and overwhelmed the confederate defenders. ,utgunned, outmanned, exhausted they put up a g