Fort Fisher, captured January 15, 1865. With the capture of Fort Fisher,
Wilmington, the great importing depot of the South, on which General Lee
said the subsistence of his army depended, was finally closed to all
blockade runners. The Federal navy concentrated against the fortifications
of this port the most powerful naval force ever assembled up to that
time--fifty-five ships of war, including five ironclads, altogether
carrying six hundred guns. The upper picture shows the nature of the
palisade, nine feet high, over which some two thousand marines attempted
to pass; the lower shows interior of the works after the destructive
bombardment.
[Illustration: INSIDE FORT FISHER--WORK OF THE UNION FLEET