Dec. 23-24, 1864-- Part 2: Explosion of Powder Ship USS Louisiana

Fort Fisher and its garrison, however,  were not measurably affected, although the blast was heard many miles away.  In fact, Colonel Lamb, the fort's commander, wrote in his diary:  "A blockader got aground near the fort, set fire to herself, and blew up."

It remained for the massed gunfire from ships of Porter's huge fleet, the largest ever assembled up to that time under the American flag, to cover the landings of troops and reduce the fort.

On paper, the powder ship experiment seemed to be a good idea.  Porter certainly thought it might come to something as I believe I heard somewhere that he had his ships remove themselves quite a bit further out to sea from where they usually would have been stationed for fear of destruction.

But, I also have to wonder why he picked then to explode the ship when U.S. troops were not in the vicinity for a landing.  I'm thinking he was hoping that if the venture worked, he could get the credit for capturing Fort Fisher.

One Just Has To Wonder.  --Old B-Runner