THE largest fleet that had ever been assembled under one command in the history of the American Navy concentrated before Fort Fisher, North Carolina, late in 1864. It included nearly sixty vessels, of which five were ironclads, and the three largest United States steam frigates, "Minnesota," "Colorado" and "Wabash," and was accompanied by one of the war cameras. The total number of guns and howitzers of the fleet were over six hundred, and the weight of projectiles at a single discharge of all the guns, both broadsides, was over twenty-two tons. The Atlantic and Gulf coast were almost entirely in the Government possession and the Navy was prepared to strike its decisive blow. Fort Fisher was now the most important Confederate naval position. The first attack took place in the night of December twenty-third, when a powder-boat was exploded under the towering walls of the old fort. It was believed that it was leveled to the ground, but in the morning the grim fort stood absolutely uninjured with its flag floating defiantly. An attack was then led by the ironclads, followed by the monitors and frigates. A naval officer in describing it says: "Their sides seemed a sheet of flame, and the roar of their guns like a mighty thunderbolt." The enemy took refuge in their bomb-proofs. Owing to misunderstanding between army and navy the fort was not taken. An excellent photograph was secured of one of the gunboats in the Fort Fisher expedition--the "Santiago de Cuba," and the negative is one of the finest naval pictures ever taken. [Illustration: INTERIOR VIEW OF FORT FISHER IN 1865] [Illustration: DISMANTLED GUN AT FORT FISHER IN 1865] [Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT FORT FISHER, NORTH CAROLINA, SHOWING DESTRUCTION OF GUN CARRIAGE IN 1865]