Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner

Chapter 3. Fort Fisher

163 Chapter Three Fort Fisher (January 7, 1865–February 18, 1865) Thisgroupofentries,datingfromJanuary7,1865,toFebruary18, 1865, includes Turner’s accounts of the First and Second Battles of Fort Fisher (December 23–27, 1864 and January 13–15, 1865, respectively ), which the historian Rod Gragg describes as “an expedition riddled with controversy.”1 Fort Fisher, sometimes referred to as the “Gibraltar of the South” due to its formidable position at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, was a key Confederate stronghold protecting ships from the Union blockade . By taking the fort, the Union would effectively cut off one of the Confederacy’s last remaining supply lines. Gen. Benjamin Butler proposed an unusual strategy for taking the fort: loading a barge with explosives that would then be detonated close to the fort offshore. Butler’s naval counterpart, Rear Adm. David D. Porter , was skeptical of this plan; indeed, his skepticism was fueled by an active animus against Butler. As a result, some historians 1. Rod Gragg, Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), 97. 164 CHAPTER THREE speculate that Porter ensured the failure of Butler’s strategem by detonating the barge too far from Fort Fisher to do any damage. On the night before Christmas Eve, witnesses as far away as Wilmington, fifteen miles north, and even Beaufort, some seventy miles up the coast, heard the explosion. The fort itself, however, was left unscathed.2 Turner did not even note the explosion in his dispatches to the Recorder. The next day, under heavy naval bombardment, Butler sent his troops ashore to take the fort. Of this maneuver, Turner wrote, “This is the grandest day I ever witnessed ; and, I think, this day’s bombardment was never equalled upon an American shore. . . . I regard the sight as far transcending any I ever witnessed, or probably ever will, this side of eternity.” However, after hours of battle Butler inexplicably commanded a retreat. He later testified to a congressional committee tasked with investigating the failure of the expedition that Fort Fisher was impregnable , and that he decided to withdraw in order to prevent unnecessary casualties. The press, already convinced of Butler’s ineffectual leadership after the catastrophic failure of the powder-boat gambit, ridiculed Butler’s logic, and Grant took the opportunity to ask Lincoln to relieve Butler of command.3 White troops cheered this decision. “We all believe Butler to be a rank traitor and a coward and everything but a gentleman,” wrote one soldier.4 Turner, however, echoed the sentiments of the black regiments who defended Butler: “Will the government see its wrong, and replace General Butler, and beg his pardon?” he wrote. “If they don’t do it, some 2. See Gragg’s description in Confederate Goliath, 52–53. 3. Shelby Foote argues that General Ulysses S. Grant, dissatisfied for some time with Butler’s ineffectual leadership, took the opportunity of Butler’s failure at Fort Fisher to request that Butler be relieved (Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative, vol. 3, Red River to Appomattox [New York: Random House, 1958], 739). 4. Qtd. in Gragg, Confederate Goliath, 104. FORT FISHER 165 judgment will surely follow.” The black troops’ loyalty to Butler may have resulted more from his stalwart abolitionism and progressive racial attitudes than it did his military strategy; on his departure, he told them, “With the bayonet you have unlocked the iron-barred gates of prejudice, opening new fields of freedom, liberty and equality of right to yourselves and your race forever.”5 Over the course of the two battles, Turner experienced firsthand the dangers of naval warfare. His fear of drowning at sea is expressed in nearly comical terms, though the seas surrounding Cape Hatteras, not far from the Bermuda Triangle, were admittedly treacherous. On December 20, a few days before the first Battle of Fisher took place, a ferocious storm blew in; Turner wrote, “many 5. Qtd. in Gragg, Confederate Goliath, 104. Fig. 3. The 1st Regiment U.S.C.T. at Petersburg. United States Army Military History Institute. 166 CHAPTER THREE of us gave up all hope. I lay down, and bade my mother, wife and children farewell . . . I begged the Lord to put me to sleep, and that if it was His will that the ship should be dashed to pieces, I should remain asleep and be spared the heartrending spectacle of nearly fifteen...