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As noted in the preceding issue of this publication (in the “Conclusion” to the series on Fort Johnston), Wilmington emerged as one of the Confederacy’s most strategically important cities as the Civil War progressed, second in value only to the capitol at Richmond. Wilmington’s location twenty-six miles up the Cape Fear River with its two entrances (Old and New Inlets) to the Atlantic Ocean made it the South’s center for blockade-running activities after the fall of Charleston. The three railroads based in Wilmington distributed blockade-runner goods throughout much of the Confederate southeast and served as the major supplier for Gen. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. To protect this vital system Confederate military strategists had constructed a vast system of massive earthen-walled forts and batteries throughout the area, as can be seen in the map illustrated left (taken from Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr.’s scholarly and entertaining Fort Anderson: Battle for Wilmington). The role of Fort Johnston, identified as Fort Pender in the map at the left, has been discussed at length in preceding issues of Southport nc. Fonvielle notes that:
The strongest and best-armed forts in the Lower Cape Fear were built to protect the harbor’s inlets for blockade- runners. Forts Caswell and Campbell and Battery Shaw on Oak Island, and Fort Holmes on Bald Head Island guarded Old Inlet.… To safeguard New Inlet, engineers constructed the largest and strong- est seacoast fortification in the Confederacy, Fort Fisher.… The immense two-sided earthen fortification comprised a series of elevated gun batteries mounting forty-seven pieces of seacoast artillery, connected by a broad rampart.…Dubbed the Gibraltar of the South, the massive fort was the key to Wilmington’s defense.
The detailed part played by some of these other forts will be the focus of future articles. This particular feature will deal with Fort Anderson and its defense of Wilmington.
Construction of Fort Anderson began amidst the ruins of old Brunswick Town on the west bank of the Cape Fear River, half way between Wilmington and Smithville. On March 24, 1862, Lt. Thomas Rowland of the Confederate Corps of Engineers, a Northerner by birth but a Southerner by conviction, took up residence at Orton Plantation to oversee the military construction project. (It was the day before his twentieth birthday.) Much of the intense physical labor associated with the construction was performed by slaves hired from throughout southeastern North Carolina and freed blacks. Their efforts were supplemented by those of Confederate troops assigned to the area, whose numbers may have risen as high as 300 by that summer. In spite of the ongoing harassment provided by sand gnats, mosquitoes, deer flies, various poisonous snakes, alligators and inclement weather, Rowland and his fellow workers made considerable progress on constructing a battery and a line of entrenchments extending from the battery to Orton Pond by the end of the summer. The surviving brick wall of the old colonial St. Philip’s Church, which abutted the line of entrenchments, was left undisturbed; and on May 11, 1862, the Battery and its military surrounds were officially named in its honor. According to Fonvielle “Maj. William Lamb christened the works Fort St. Philip, in…‘silent witness to the successful struggle of our fathers for liberty and independence.’”
Fort St. Philip retained its colonial name for only a little over a year. On July 1, 1863 (the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg), in response to Maj. Gen. William Henry Chase Whiting’s General Orders No. 33, the names of several of the forts on the Lower Cape Fear were changed to honor fallen Confederate heroes of North Carolina. As a result Fort St. Philip became forever known as Fort Anderson.
The only question was which fallen Carolinian hero named Anderson was the subject of this honor? For many years historians thought that the Fort was named after Gen. Joseph Reid Anderson, the first Richmond-appointed Commander of the Cape Fear District. Indeed, Eugene S. Martin, one of the last surviving Confederate veterans of Fort Anderson stated in a Nov. 6, 1919 letter to the New Hanover Historical Commission that the Fort was definitely named in honor of Joseph Ried Anderson. This information is commemorated in a marble plaque (shown on page 20) erected by the Historical Commission that same year at St. Philip’s Church. Nevertheless, the information (and, therefore, the honor attributed to Joseph Reid Anderson) must be in error, since Joseph R. Anderson was a Virginian not a Carolinian and alive not dead at the time General Orders No. 33 was issued. Dr. Fonvielle feels that the Fort was most likely named for Brig. Gen. George Burgyne Anderson, the only North Carolina general with that surname. He was a descendant of one of the Cape Fear’s oldest families, and served with distinction at Williamsburg, Malvern Hill, South Mountain and Sharpsburg, where he received a wound that eventually led to his death.
Construction of Fort Anderson took nearly three years to complete, and by the time it was finished, it bore little resemblance to Lt. Rowland’s modest efforts. It was the Cape Fear’s most powerful internal fort and was second only to Fort Fisher in overall size and strength. Fonvielle characterizes it as follows:
From the riverside, Fort Anderson was shaped like a huge crooked letter “L” with the short end running parallel to the Cape Fear River and the long shank running
perpendicular to the waterway. The fort’s main strength was its eastern anchor along the river’s edge. Rowland’s old redoubt built close to the river was transformed into an impressive twenty-four-foot-high crescent- shaped bastion, designated Battery B on Union maps. Located at the rough intersection of the “L’s” two shanks, the imposing bastion was pitted with five gun chambers.… The short end of the “L” was a huge 150-yard long artillery emplacement constructed just north of Battery B. Called Battery A, it ran parallel to the Cape Fear River and guarded any attempt by enemy vessels to ascend the waterway. Like Battery B, the walls of Battery A averaged about twenty-four feet in height, were interspersed with five gun chambers separated by traverses, and sodded with grass to prevent erosion.… Abutting Battery B’s west flank was Thomas Rowland’s original six-foot high earthen wall with a series of small emplacements added for light artillery. One 32-pound cannon was also mounted along this line at St. Philip’s Church, which was located just inside the fort’s walls. From this point the earthen line extended about a mile to the east end of Orton Pond. Buoyed mines…, pilings and stone-filled cribs in the river complemented the fort’s defenses.
Three years of planning and preparation were now to be put to the test as Union forces descended into the Lower Cape Fear region and began the long awaited campaign against Wilmington.....end
(To Be Continued)
