Butler's Powdership, the USS Louisiana-- Part 4: "Blowing Up" Fort Fisher

With the impending fall of Charleston, S.C., Wilmington, N.C. became the port to which foreign weapons and trade could proceed and it became the target of General Butler and Admiral Porter.  They had a plan to try to blow up a ship full of explosives with enough force to knock the bug sand fort over.

Wilmington was guarded by the huge sand fort named Fort Fisher.

O 26 November 1864, contrary to the beliefs from naval ordnance experts that it wouldn't work, the USS Louisiana was designated as the ship to carry all that powder and in early December, she proceeded to Hampton Roads  to be partially stripped and made to look like a blockade runner and then was laden with explosives.

She left Hampton Roads on December 13, towed by the USS Sassacus and went to Beaufort, N.C.,  where the loading of powder was completed and five days later, arrived off Fort Fisher.

--Old B-Runner