NOVEMBER 19TH, 1864: The CSS Chickamauga, Lt. Wilkinson, ran the blockade into Wilmington under cover of a heavy fog. He had miscalculated his position the day before and successfully run through the blockade to Masonboro Inlet instead of New Inlet.
Wilkinson dropped down the coast and early in the morning of the 19th anchored under the guns of Fort Fisher to await high tide when the Chickamauga could cross the bar and stand up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington.
As the fog lifted blockaders USS Kansas, Wilderness, Cherokee and Clematis opened on what they thought at first was a grounded blockade runner. The Chickamauga broke out its Confederate flag and returned the fire, joined by the heavy guns of Fort Fisher.
Fog and the range of the fort's guns thwarted efforts to destroy the cruiser and by mid-morning, the Chickamauga was safely up the river and nearing Wilmington.
Nearly an Oops. --Old B-R'er
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