January 22, 1865: Union Navy Moving Up the Cape Fear River

JANUARY 22ND, 1865:  Rear Admiral Porter ordered Commander John Guest, USS Iosco, to "regulate the movements o vessels in the Cape Fear River above Fort Fisher...."  Porter sought to move the line of ships as near Fort Anderson, the position to which the Confederates had withdrawn following the fall of Fort Fisher and adjacent forts, "as is consistent with safety, and in doing so care must be taken of torpedoes and other obstructions."

The same day USS Pequot, Lieutenant Commander Daniel L. Braine, steamed upriver and opened fire on Fort Anderson to reconnoiter and test its defenses.  The Confederates brought only two "small rifle pieces" in action, but Braine reported:  "I observed 6 guns, evidently smoothbore, pointing down the river, protected by ordinary sand traverses."

Having sealed off Wilmington, the last major port in the South, the Union was now moving to,occupy it.

--Old B-R'er