Title	Federal Point.
Subject	Fort Fisher, Civil War, Federal Point, Battery Buchanan, The Rocks
Description	"Battery Buchanan" and "The Rocks" below Fort Fisher. A Confederate stronghold, Fort Fisher is located about twenty miles from Wilmington on the tip of the Federal Point peninsula. The fort protected the Port of Wilmington, which was the last port to be captured by Union forces during the Civil War. In January, 1865, it was the scene of the largest amphibious battle in U.S. history until the Normandy invasion during World War II. Named for Colonel Charles F. Fisher, who was killed in the first battle of Manassas, the fort contained mounds made of thick parapets of sand and massive timbers and was the work of Confederate General W. H. C. Whiting, who joined the U.S. Corps of Engineers after his graduation from West Point. On January 15, 1865, the fort fell to the mighty Federal armada which spelled doom for the Confederacy. Erosion of the famous fort has been an ongoing problem; all of the original mounds on the ocean side have been destroyed. The "Rocks", built between 1875 and 1881, by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, is properly called New Inlet Dam. The inlet was opened in 1761 by a strong hurricane and was the easiest and best entrance into the Cape Fear River and avoided the dangerous Frying Pan Shoals at the mouth of the river. Fort Fisher was constructed to protect this entrance during the Civil War. Shoals constantly built up in the river, making navigation treacherous. It was decided to close New Inlet to help the situation, by constructing a large dam, about one mile long. Henry Bacon, Sr. (1822-1891), was chief engineer for the project.
Source	Louis T. Moore Collection 194