Jan. 2, 1865: Welles Proposes Attack on Fort Caswell to Close Wilmington

JANUARY 2ND, 1865:  In September 1864, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had discussed with Vice Admiral Farragut the importance of seizing Wilmington to cut General Lee's vital link with Europe and to stop the Confederacy's credit-producing cotton shipments abroad.

He now called on Secretary of War Stanton's attention to the present "fit opportunity to undertake such an operation."

 Pointing to the availability of troops, "as the armies are mostly going into winter quarters," he urged on Stanton a proposal of Rear Admiral Porter to land an assault force at Fort Caswell, guarding the west entrance to the Cape Fear River, and stressed that the naval blockaders, which thus would be able to lie inside the river, would close Wilmington, "the only port by which any supplies whatever reach the rebels."

--Old B-Runner