Hampton Roads Naval Museum

34. Fall of Fort Fisher

Norfolk, VA

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On December 24, 1864, Union Admiral David Dixon Porter and Major General Benjamin Butler teamed up against Confederate Major General Robert Hoke in the First Battle of Fort Fisher in New Hanover County, North Carolina. The battle was a Confederate victory. The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a joint assault on January 15, 1865, by Union Army and United States Navy forces against Fort Fisher, outside Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War. Sometimes referred to as the "Gibraltar of the South" and the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy, Fort Fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war, providing a port for blockade runners supplying the Army of Northern Virginia.