December 15, 1862: Fox Proposes An Attack on Wilmington

DECEMBER 15, 1862:  Assistant Secretary of the Navy Fox wrote Rear Admiral S.P. Lee, proposing an assault on Wilmington, N.C..

"Though the popular clamor centers upon Charleston I consider Wilmington a more important point in a military and political point of view and I do not conceal from myself that it is more difficult of access on account of the shallowness of the bars, and more easily defended inside by obstructions, yet it must be attacked and we have more force than we shall possess again since the Iron Clads must go South so soon as four are ready."

Nonetheless, Wilmington, guarded by the guns of Fort Fisher, remained a bastion of Confederate strength and one of the few havens for blockade runners until nearly the end of the war.

And Fort Fisher was nowhere near as powerful back at this date as it later became.

--Old B-R'er