Fort Fisher was the Confederacy's strongest seacoast fortification. It guarded New Inlet, the northern entryway into the Cape Fear River and the port of Wilmington, North Carolina. By the summer of 1863, Wilmington was the Confederacy's main seaport along the Atlantic seaboard. Commerce vessels brought in essential weapons, equipment, and provisions for Confederate armed forces on the battlefront and civilians on the home front. To do so, they had to evade U.S. Navy ships deployed to blockade the the South's extensive coastline and numerous seaports. Strong defenses like Fort Fisher were needed to protect Wilmington for blockade-runners, the inlets they used to access Wilmington's harbor, the port facilities, and the railroads along which supplies were transported to the needy. By late 1864, Wilmington was the lifeline for General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederacy's most important city. Faces of Fort Fisher, 1861-1864, examines the early history of the fort, nicknamed the Gibraltar of the South, from its construction beginning in 1861 up to the eve of it being attacked by Union forces at Christmas 1864. It looks at the officers who planned, designed, and commanded the works, and the soldiers who built, garrisoned, and defended them. The book also explores events associated with the forts fascinating history, including blockade running, Camp Wyatt, President Jefferson Davis' 1863 visit, the 1864 sortie of the CSS Raleigh, the drowning of the celebrated Confederate spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow, and much more. Faces of Fort Fisher, 1861-1864, features full color case binding and dust jacket and hundreds of color and B&W illustrations: CDVs, ambrotypes, and tintypes of Confederate officers and soldiers and U.S. Navy personnel, period color paintings, lithographs, and engravings of blockade-runners, fortifications, cannons, maps, and artifacts. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Author: Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.