It was Christmas Day, 1864 when one of the largest armadas ever assembled by mankind began to deluge Fort Fisher, one of the largest forts in the world, with tens of thousands of shells. The Confederates refused to surrender and fought to the last man. Their fort guarded the last remaining port of the Confederacy, an essential lifeline of the fledgling nation. If Fort Fisher fell, so too would fall the Confederate States of America and the men on the ground knew it, felt it, and their actions demonstrated they knew it. Death rained from the sky. The earthen walls absorbed the explosive shock. Humans were split apart, their entrails ticker-taping from their split-open torsos. Terror played concertos on human visages. And you should have seen the animals &#8211; butchered by shot and shell. Fort Fisher was a milestone in the human development of killing and this episode will provide the exhaustive details, an examination of mass-produced pain. It&#8217;s all here and it&#8217;s all free on Battlecast &#8211; the world&#8217;s foremost podcast on war and its sociopolitical impact. 



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Download episode 81 here: <a href="https://media.blubrry.com/429895/archive.org/download/bc-81/BC81.mp3">download link</a>



Maps and Images:



Extensive maps and images are posted to the definitive historical atlas of The Battle of Fort Fisher located here: <a href="https://thebattlecast.com/2023/09/21/the-definitive-historical-atlas-of-the-battle-of-fort-fisher/">Battle of Fort Fisher Atlas link</a>



Music Source:



Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio /// website: <a href="http://karlcasey.bandcamp.com">karlcasey.bandcamp.com</a>



References:



The Wilmington Campaign: Last rays of departing hope by Chris Fonvielle Jr.&nbsp;



Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher by Rod Gragg



The last stronghold: the campaign for Fort Fisher by Richard McClaskin



Spring 1865 : the closing campaigns of the Civil War by Perry Jamieson



The Civil War in North Carolina by Barrett, John Gilchrist



The Tar Heel State: A New History of North Carolina by Milton Ready



Faces of Fort Fisher, 1861-1864 by Chris Fonvielle



Clayton, B. (2013). Applying GIS to locate the USS Louisiana: A study of the Fort Fisher Civil War Naval Battlefield. [Master’s Thesis, East Carolina University].



Ludwick, M.P. (1995). Your most obedient son: The Civil War letters of William Tell Cobb. [Master’s Thesis, The College of WIlliam and Mary].



Longacre, E.G. (1988). The army of the James, 1863-1865: A military, political, and social



history. (Volumes I – IV) [Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University].



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Henry C. Lockewood “The Capture of Fort Fisher,” The Maine Bugle, (January 1894).



Capture of Fort Fisher by Adelbert Ames



Jean Vial Pays des lions fidèles.



Anonymous. Assault on Fort Fisher. On Point Magazine, Spring 2010, Vol. 15, No. 4 , p. 48.



Black Troops in the Army of the James, 1863-65 by Edward G. Longacre.&nbsp; Military Affairs, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Feb., 1981), pp. 1-8.



Butler’s Folly: The First Battle of Fort Fisher, December 1864 by Taylor Hess. On Point, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Spring 2011), pp. 6-13.



Lamb, W. (1893). The defender of Fisher; Col. Lamb’s address in Wilmington, N.C..&nbsp;



Fleet against Fort by: John Hayes. Ordnance, Vol. 45, No. 243 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1960), pp. 357-360.



Fort Fisher: Amphibious Victory in the American Civil War by: Gary J. Ohls. Naval War College Review, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Autumn 2006), pp. 81-99.



Fort Fisher (1865) by A.G. Lawrence.&nbsp;



Hurricane of Fire: The Union Assault on Fort Fisher by Charles Robinson



Rebel Gibraltar: Fort Fisher and Wilmington, C.S.A. by James Walker



Running the blockade. A personal narrative of adventures, risks and escapes during the American civil war by Thomas E. Taylor (1896).



Shock and Assault in the First Battle of Fort Fisher by Charles L. Price and Claude C. Sturgill. The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 47, No. 1 (January, 1970), pp. 24-39.



Wightman, S.K. In search of my son. American Heritage Magazine. Vol. 14, No. 2 (February 1963).&nbsp;



Turner, H.M. “Rocked in the cradle of consternation. American Heritage Magazine. Vol. 31, No. 6. (October/November 1980).&nbsp;



“Welcome Brothers!” The 1865 Union Prisoners of War Exchange in North Carolina by Chris Fonvielle Jr. The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 92, No. 3 (JULY 2015), pp. 278-311.



Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War by Admiral David Dixon Porter.&nbsp;



A Sailor’s Log: Recollections Of Forty Years Of Naval Life by Robley Evans



History of the 117th New York by J.A. Mowris.&nbsp;



The autobiography of Admiral Dewey by George Dewey.&nbsp;



Fonvielle, C.E. Jr. (1994). “The last rays of departing hope”: The battles of Fort Fisher,



the fall of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the end of the Confederacy. [Doctoral Dissertation, University of South Carolina].



Fort Fisher, December 1864-January 1865 by David W. Kummer, (2012).



The Fall of Fort Fisher: Contested Memories of the Civil War by Warren Ellem.The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 79, No. 2 (APRIL 2002), pp. 198-233.&nbsp;



Merrill, J.M. The Fort Fisher and Wilmington Campaign: Letters from Rear Admiral David D Porter. The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 35, No. 4 (OCTOBER 1958), pp. 461-475.



Ryan, J.T. (1997). On Land and Sea:The United States Marine Corps in The Civil War. [Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University].&nbsp;



Thompson, B. and Owsley, F.L. Jr. The War Journal of Midshipman Cary. Civil War History, Vol. 9, No. 2, June 1963, pp. 187-202.



Helsley, A.J.&nbsp; Vox Populi and the Fall of Fort Fisher. The South Carolina Historical Magazine,&nbsp; Vol. 96, No. 1 (Jan., 1995), pp. 71-73.&nbsp;



Wood, R.E. (1976). Port town at war: Wilmington, North Carolina 1860-1865. [Doctoral Dissertation, Florida State University].



Hoole, S.W. (1956). Vizitelley covers the Confederacy.&nbsp;



Freeman, D.S. (1936). R. E. Lee: A Biography&nbsp;

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