Wilmington, NC

At a brief stopover in Wilmington, North Carolina, we visited Fort Fisher at Kure Beach and the Battleship North Carolina. These visits encompassed the Civil War and WWII.

The history at Fort Fisher involved one of the final chapters that sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

Fort Fisher kept North Carolina’s port open to blockade runners supplying necessary goods to Confederacy armies inland. By 1865, the supply line through Wilmington was the last remaining supply route open to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. 



When Fort Fisher fell after a massive Federal amphibious assault on January 15, 1865, it’s defeat helped seal the fate of the Confederacy.

At the dawn of the American Civil War, the confederacy took control of a neck of land in southern North Carolina near the mouth of the Cape Fear River and constructed what was to become the largest and most important earthwork fort in the South.



Two major battles were fought there, and many Union soldiers received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their gallant participation in that fighting. Today only a few of the mounds remain, since the ocean has eroded much of the fort.

Unlike older fortifications built of brick and mortar, Fort Fisher was made mostly of earth and sand, which was ideal for absorbing the shock of heavy explosives.

Colonel Lamb recognized the importance of Fort Fisher to the defense system of the Cape Fear, to the security of Wilmington, and to the survival of the entire Confederacy. 



Massive and powerful, Fort Fisher kept Federal blockading ships at a distance from the Cape Fear River, protecting Wilmington from attack and ensuring relatively safe passage for Confederate naval travel.

Wilmington was the last major port open to the Confederacy and the destination of steamers called blockade-runners, which smuggled provision into the Southern states and supplied General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.



These ships traveled from Bermuda, the Bahamas, and Nova Scotia, where southern cotton and tobacco were exchanged for food, clothing, and munitions from British traders.

The Union army and navy planned several attacks on Fort Fisher and the Port of Wilmington, but made no attempt until December 24, 1864. After two days of fighting with little headway, Union commanders concluded that the fort was too strong to assault and withdrew their forces.

A second attempt was made a couple weeks later by both land and sea. On January 15^th, more that 3,300 Union forces assaulted the land face.



After several hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat, Federal troops captured the fort that night. Within weeks Union forces overran Wilmington. Once Wilmington fell, the supply line of the Confederacy was severed, and the Civil War was soon over.

Memorial to those who died at Ft. Fisher.

Next we checked out the Battleship NORTH CAROLINA. This ship is docked and retired on the Cape Fear River and open for tours.

Battleship North Carolina

At the time of her commission in 1941, she was considered the world’s greatest sea weapon. Armed with nine 16-inch/45-caliber guns in three turrets and twenty 5-inch/38-caliber guns in ten twin mounts, NORTH CAROLINA proved a formidable weapons platform. During wartime she carried 144 commissioned officers, and 2,195 enlisted men, including about 100 Marines.

During WWII, North Carolina participated in every major naval offensive in the Pacific area of operations and earned 15 battle stars. In the Battle of the Eastern Solomon’s in 1942, the Battleship’s anti-aircraft barrage helped save the carrier ENTERPRISE, thereby establishing the primary role of the last battleship as protector of aircraft carriers.

Although Japanese radio announcements claimed six times that NORTH CAROLINA had been sunk, she survived many close calls and near misses with one hit when a Japanese torpedo slammed into the Battleship’s hull in September 1942. A quick response of the crew allowed the mighty ship to keep up with the fleet. By war’s end, the Ship lost only ten men in action and had 67 wounded.

The NORTH CAROLINA was decommissioned June 27, 1947. In 1962 she was dedicated as the State’s memorial to its WWII veterans and the 10,000 North Carolinians who died during the war. She now rests on the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Ship's Barbershop.

As we walked through the ship, I was very glad I had never been a sailor on this ship. (Or any other, for that matter!)




The stairs between the NINE levels of the ship are very close to being straight up and down. Also to be in the lower levels with a thousand or more other sailors, was hot and smelly.




They did manage to feed more than a thousand men in the mess area in the space of one hour every day. I have absolutely no idea how they accomplished that! Also, a ship this large is like a rat’s maze. I would STILL be lost on board!!

Super-steep stairs.

The ship's post office.

Sailor's Bunks.