Fort Fisher: Historical land use

Colonel Lamb’s Vision

“I determined at once to build a work of such magnitude that it could withstand the heaviest fire of any guns in

the American Navy”

View from the Cape Fear River

View from the Atlantic Ocean

The Malakoff Tower of the South

The fall of Fort Fisher• The fate of Wilmington was sealed upon the fall of Fort Fisher in January of 1865

• Military troops left shortly after the fall of the fort leaving behind fragments of shells, bayonets, and other pieces of iron

• 1907 veterans reunited and began to take action to preserve the remnants of the battlefield

Land use since the end of the Civil War

• 1881 New Inlet was closed to help navigation of the CFR

• By 1928 nearly 400 feet of beach had been lost, yet construction of Highway 421 began

• 1939-1945 WW II took precedence over historical preservation

• During the war military housing was built and firing range was established to train troops

• Portions of the mounds were bulldozed for construction of a military airstrip

Land use since the end of the Civil War

• Fort Fisher was abandoned following the end of the war

• State of NC acquired the remnants of the fort

• NC Historical Society built the museum on the site of the old airstrip

• Shephard’s Mound was rebuilt near CFR

•Recently the NC Historical Society built a seawall of granite to preserve remaining battery mounds

Shephard’s Battery today

Museum overlooking former airstrip

View from Atlantic ocean today

Granite sea wall overlooking Atlantic

ReferencesNorth Carolina Historical Sites: Fort Fisher Museum. 2000.Gragg. R. 1994. Confederate Goliath. Louisiana State University Press:

Baton Rouge, 343pp.Leatherman, S.P. 1979. Barrier Islands: From the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the

Gulf of Mexico. Academic Press: New York, 325pp.Leatherman, S.P. 1988. Barrier Island Handbook. Coastal Publication Series:

Maryland, 92 pp.Moore, M. A. 1999. The Wilmington campaign and the battles for Fort Fisher.

Savas Publishing Co.: Iowa, 210 pp.Pilkey, O.H., W.J. Neal, S.R. Riggs, C.A. Webb, D.M. Bush, D. F. Pilkey, J.

Bullock, B.A. Cowan. 1998. The North Carolina shore and its barrier islands. Durham: Duke University Press.