Fort Fisher after the bombardment.
The editor of the Wilmington Journal, who visited Fort Fisher after the bombardment by the Yankee fleet, gives a description of its appearance after the terrific fire it had been subjected to. He says of it:‘ "Within a stone's throw of the fort, on the side of the road leading from the landing, in a small hole something of the length and shape of a coffin, and a few feet from it, is an humble ridge of earth marked by a piece of board at each end. The hole is a rifle-pit dug by one of four or five enterprising Yankee sharpshooters who ventured up that near to the fort with the view of picking off our gunners. The ridge of earth marks the grave of a courier, a member of Faison's company of scouts, who was shot from his horse by the occupant of the rifle pit. All of this party of Yankees were either killed or captured.
"The fort itself shows more plainly the marks of the enemy's fire. Deep holes are dug in the parapets, and many of the traverses are marked and scarred. On entering at the upper end, we found the soldiers at work repairing their wooden quarters, which had been dreadfully shattered by the shell, but not burned. Farther on, brick chimneys in some places, and blackened ashes in others, alone marked where different wooden structures had stood. Full ten days have elapsed since the bombardment closed, and no doubt many of the most striking evidences of its fury had been effaced. The shot and shell, which at one time was plentifully strewn over the whole ground in the interior of the fort, had been gathered up, and the parade appeared as level as formerly. The outside and top of the ramparts, and, in many places, of the traverses, looked as though rooted by a gigantic hog; none of this rooting, however, seemed to do more than roughen the surface. The great masses of the fort everywhere remained perfectly intact. Only two guns were dismounted by the enemy's bombardment. Two more were dismounted by their own recoil. The Brooke gun, which burst, presents a remarkable evidence of the explosive power of gunpowder. The heavy mass of the gun proper, with the powerful wrought iron bands near it, all rent and torn and strewn around, give some idea of that terrible explosion, by which nine men were wounded, although but one was killed outright.
"Fort Fisher is much changed, enlarged and strengthened since the occasion of our former visit to that work.--We felt some curiosity to ascertain how the casemate battery, or batteries, had stood the ordeal of fire, but found that there were no such batteries remaining, the embrasures being closed and the guns removed. The casemates were used during the fight for quarters for the wounded and for various official purposes. It seems that the casemate batteries were not popular. Their range was limited, and the embrasures would not stand the jar occasioned by the firing of our own guns, to say nothing of the projectiles of the enemy."
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