PLAN AND SECTIONS OF FORT FISHER CARRIED BY ASSAULT BY THE U.S. FORCES MAJ. GEN. A. H. TERRY Commanding. January 15th, 1865. After three days’ bombardment by U. S. Fleet REAR ADMIRAL D. D. PORTER, Commanding. _From “The Navy in the Civil War.”_] It was plain that the Confederates erected this huge structure to keep the Federal forces from entering Cape Fear River by the way of New Inlet. As a matter of fact, it was, in the judgment of engineers, built too near to the sea. The inlet was shoal at best. Only the lightest of vessels could enter it. Had Fort Fisher been erected back from the sea, where it would have been out of range of the deep-draft Union ships, a different story would have been told of it in history. As it was, Col. William Lamb, commanding it, gave a right good account of himself. When an attack was at last planned by the Union forces, a very grave error was made in placing Benjamin F. Butler at the head of the army forces after Admiral David D. Porter had been assigned to command the naval part of the expedition. This is not to disparage the talents of either man. It is said because the two leaders heartily disliked each other. It was therefore utterly impossible for them to coöperate. Ships and transports were assembled at Hampton Roads in September, but the publicity given to the destination of the expedition caused a postponement until December. In the meantime Butler had conceived an idea, and in order not to be unfair his exact words, from page 775 of “Butler’s Book,” are given. He says: “In that time, after hearing of the great destruction for many miles around made by an explosion of gunpowder at Erith, England, I made an examination into the various instances of the explosive effect of large quantities of powder; and I believed that possibly, by bringing within four or five hundred yards of Fort Fisher a large mass of explosives, and firing the whole in every part at the same moment--for it was the essence of the experiment to have the powder all exploded at the same instant--the garrison would at least be so far paralyzed as to enable, by a prompt landing of men, a seizure of the fort.”