The tour guide said that the state rents Fort Fisher from the Sunny Point Ammunition Depot, across the river for a whopping $1 a year. This is the largest army ammunition depot in the country. I always thought Sunny Point was a strange name for something containing something that dangerous.
During World War II, US anti-aircraft gunners trained at Fort Fisher, causing some of the fort to be torn down for a landing strip (where the parking lot and visitors center are located today). Recently, he had a walk and some of the tourists were older gentlemen who had trained at Fisher in the 1940s (when it was part of the huge Camp Davis, north of Wilmington). One was a 92-year-old former captain who commanded the guns that shot down the very first German jet. Unfortunately, the captain just recently died.
Col. William Lamb was transferred from Fort St. Phillip (later Fort Anderson) across the Cape Fear River because of the drunkenness that occurred in Fort Fisher's garrison after the stranded blockade-runner Modern Greece's liquor stores were discovered. Someone was needed to restore order.
He was fortunate enough to have his wife and children join him at Fort Fisher. Even though his wife, Daisy, was from Rhode Island, he loved her dearly and even commissioned a $3,500 stained glass window at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Norfolk (Lamb's hometown) after her death around the turn of the century.
He also kept a diary which Daisy must have read as he carefully worded one entry "Daisy cross today...but a great wife." Obviously she looked at it as she added a comment.
Smart Guy, That William Lamb. --Old B-Runner
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