Transcripts For CSPAN3 To Forge A Thunderbolt 20170318

Left to right, hero intervals. [military commands] we are actually standing on the parapet or the crest of fort anderson, which was the largest confederate fort in the lowercase fear in the interior lower cape fear in the interior. It had western land approaches and river approaches to the seaport of wilmington. They got good intelligent that the attack on wilmington was coming october 1864. They knew that the attack was planned against fort fisher, and so for andersons garrison was largely depleted to send reinforcements to fort fisher. You might have had a company or two of troops here. There would be two attacks on fort fisher. 1864. S in two and a half weeks later, they returned with a slightly scaleddown Naval Task Force, more soldiers, and this time they were determined to capture the fort. Bombardment,s of the second of the civil war, union forces attacked late in the afternoon january 15, and overwhelmed the confederate defenders. ,utgunned, outmanned, exhausted they put up a good fight, but the fort fell that light night. Forces turned their guns sites up river to capture wilmington. That is when fort anderson came into play. Jennifer the general abandoned the fort at the mouth of the river and through them to , and that is with the most soldiers you know, were in for anderson during the war. There were 4300 confederate soldiers here, 4500 across the sentfear river, and troops by general lee from the petersburg lines to make sure wilmington remained in confederate hands. It had to be safeguarded. Remember, if wilmington fell, he could not maintain this army. He has got troops over here, troops across the river, but general grant wanted to capture not just fort fisher. He closed the harbor to blockade running. He needs to capture wilmington. Why . At the time that the federals were being defeated at fort fisher in the first attack in 1864, the federals gained an important victory 300 miles to the south. Armya William T Shermans captured atlanta. After capturing, occupying, and destroying atlanta in the fall of 18 64, general sherman marched his army the entire breadth of the state. He captured savannah on the 21st. It was a christmas gift. From the seacoast, general grant wanted to transfer shermans army by c from petersburg by petersburg for one last push with a greatly expanded army. Wilmington became so important that u. S. Grant left virginia, came to the Cape Fear River, and on january 28, he consulted with the leaders who had captured fort fisher. How do we capture wilmington . The Naval Task Force demand or admiral david porter commander admiral david porter and another, they said, we have been here for two weeks now. We have scouted the confederate positions. The ground on the east side of Cape Fear River is a peninsula, and to narrow for military operations. Strongly defended by a line of wharfs of the sugarloaf lines. Propose is you send reinforcements, we transferred to the west side of the Cape Fear River, we will have the people go up the river, providing covering fire for both wings of the army on the east side and west side of the Cape Fear River, but really there is only one major obstacle between ,s and Williamson Williamson and that is for anderson. There would be a lot of elbow room on the army. We can attack for anderson from the river. We can attack it from the side. If possible, we can attack it head on with the protection of the navy, or if necessary, we can outflank it by going around the fences that go all the way to the end of the palm. That is where the battle 27, 1865. February flotilla ofers gunboats, almost 30 of them, would unleash a bombardment over two days on the fort kind 4000 behind 4000the fort shots. , the was a floating tank monitor. Int vessel was able to get 800 yards of the fort, fire its big shells into the earthworks where we are standing right now. In the meantime, grant sent reinforcements. They were sent across the Cape Fear River, approached the fort about two miles to the north one smith hill, where they made their landing, and got within 600 yards of the fort. The ground between the fort and the tree line was 600 yards, cleared out. What they discovered when they got there, this was a very strong person fort. Earthen fort. Attacking it head on would be almost murderous. Like the attack by the massachusetts on battery wagner in 1863. They debated whether or not to attack it straight on. Even with protection of the navy, and africanamerican showed up in their camp and the, i know a way around pond and 40 . So he got it. They went around, he guided the union forces, two brigades of forces to the west, around fort pond, they positioned themselves on the north side by february 18. The weakness of fort anderson, like the weakness of fort fisher, was that it was just a two cited work. If they could get from the north side, they can attack it more easily with less opposition. Union soldiers who were captured and some deserters informed the general who commanded the garrison here what had happened, and so they decided to evacuate the fort and retreat to wilmington. So Early Morning hours as the great 19, the forces packed up their belongings of february 19, the forces packed up their belongings and headed to wilmington. The United States army overran the fort don on february 19 19. T dawn on february they heard the army and the sounds of evacuation throughout the Early Morning hours. As soon as the sun started to come up, the bayonets, muskets, fired a volley of a charged the fort, stormed over the walls of the fort in time to capture about 40 or 50 of the confederate warrior guard who are protecting the rear of the main army in retreat to wilmington. They also found the garrison flag lying on the ground of the fort. But union forces by sunrise had captured and occupied for anderson. Well, the United States navy did not know that. At sunrise, they renewed their bombardment. Now they are exploding projectiles in the fort among the union soldiers, who rushed to the top of the fort, down to the river front or we are now, and they are waving their hands, waving their hats, blowing their bugles to signal the United States navy that the army has captured the fort. Porter, thatiral is not good enough. He has a marine contingent wrote him to shore, he walks up to the top of the fort, he plants his flag in the top of the fort and declares that the United States navy has captured fort anderson. It is the only incident in the civil war where the United States navy captured a confederate fort from the United States army. 22,ington fell on february 1865, two days after fort anderson was evacuated, wilmington fell. Then robert e. Lee surrendered his forces. He was no longer able to maintain his army as predicted. He was forced to abandon petersburg and retreated westward, was run down and forced to surrender by grants forces on april 9. That was only about six weeks after the fall of wilmington. Most historians focus their or inion on virginia terms of the seaport, on charleston. But wilmington played an incredibly Important Role during the war. Not many people know about for anderson. If they hear about the forts guarding wilmington during the civil war, they hear about fort fisher, and understandably so. The site of the Largest Naval bombardment, largest amphibian until dday world war ii, but we have this great earthen fort that is very very important in guarding the city too. Announcer 2 our cities tour