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43 Wilmington December 1864–february 1865 off Wilmington, north carolina, admiral David Dixon Porter and Major General Benjamin Butler had fort fisher under siege. Wilmington and its flow of supplies were vital to the army of northern virginia. General lee wrote Major General W. h. c. Whiting that Wilmington must be held. chase Whiting replied: “stripped as we are of forces, we shall have little time before the enemy will be upon the city.” lee detached Major General robert f. hoke’s veteran division from his own beleaguered army and sent it to Wilmington. But the assault on fort fisher had already begun.1 The navy Department ordered some of the savannah squadron refugees to Wilmington to help defend the city. lieutenant James h. rochelle of the charleston squadron took three hundred sailors north to Wilmington. hamilton Dalton, lieutenant hudgins, Dutton Graves, robert Watson, and alf lowe were among those Wilmington-bound. on a cold and blustery December 28 the three hundred, with two days’ rations of bread and meat, climbed into “some dirty old box cars” and an hour later rattled out of the charleston rail yard. at florence they changed trains and found themselves in the lap of luxury—real passenger cars, with wood stoves to warm them. They made Wilmington at noon the next day, boarded a ferry to the navy yard, and there fell into the greater luxury of rooms with bunks. But that was temporary. early next day they were ordered to Battery Buchanan at confederate Point (formerly federal Point), below fort fisher, defending the back side of the peninsula. a tug carried them down, taking four hours to make the trip. a small steamer occupied the battery’s lone wharf, but the water was shoal, so the sailors went over the side and waded ashore. it was a cold day, but wet and cold were common in the life of a sailor. Wilmington / 397 “The quarters were small and badly crowded,” seaman Watson said, with “scarcely room to turn around.” There were no bunks: they spread their blankets on the floor.2 The peninsula was low and sandy, the water brackish, and sand blew everywhere . But the battery was strong, mounting two 11-inch Brooke smoothbores and two 10-inch columbiads. These were fearsome guns, meant to kill ironclads. it remained to be seen whether they could deliver a knockout punch to the monitors like the 15-inch Dahlgrens had to the Atlanta. lieutenant robert T. chapman commanded the battery. he’d brought a few marines and sailors to garrison it just a month earlier, shortly after his return from europe. Most of Battery Buchanan’s little garrison was from the blockade-runner-turnedraider Chickamauga. among the officers were lieutenant George arledge of the Atlanta and Midshipman Thomas M. Berrien. after spending the war in the safe confines of savannah, Berrien had been assigned to the Chickamauga.3 he’d expected to go raiding at sea. instead, he was living in this sand pit and running to reinforce fort fisher’s gunners during sustained bombardments. When the assault began on December 24, he and twenty-eight others from the battery manned several of fort fisher’s Brooke rifles and engaged in an intense gun duel with the federal fleet. of the twenty-eight men who came with Berrien from Battery Buchanan , nineteen were killed or wounded.4 When they arrived at Battery Buchanan, some of the florida boys sought out lieutenant arledge. army life was familiar to them, but they were part of a different society now, and they asked arledge to allow them to mess together. one of them admitted that “it was very unpleasant for us to mess with a lot of ‘tar heels.’”5 They found the food consistently poor. “The bread is made without salt or yeast and is as heavy as stone, the beef boiled, and coffee is slops.” small boats brought in supplies. invariably, the wharf was occupied and the sailors had to wade out and unload the boats and manhandle the supplies ashore and up to the battery. it rained most of the time, and it was intensely cold. There was ice on the beach that never melted. The savannah squadron’s blue jackets all knew how to handle heavy guns, but captain chapman (who preferred to be addressed by his army rank) knew nothing of their training, so he had them watch the battery’s gun drills and learn from his men. The blue jackets were...

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