The Petersburg Project
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    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • In Front of Petersburg
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      • Rives Salient ("Fort Mahone")
      • Soldiers' Wells
      • The Mine Explosion
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
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      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Working with Photographs
    • Steeples of Petersburg
    • Petersburg Panorama 1865
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • O'Sullivan and Vest Man
      • Fort Morton and Baxter Road Group
      • Fort Haskell Panorama
      • Fort Stedman Group
      • Gracie's Salient Group
      • Bombproofs behind Fort Haskell
      • Camp of the 50th N. Y. Engineers
    • John Reekie, Photographer for the Quartermaster Corps
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • David Knox, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Andrew J. Russell, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
  • U. S. Military Railroad
    • Terminus of Military R. R. at City Point
    • City Point to Clark's Station
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    • Hancock's Junction/Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Parke's Station
    • Warren's Station
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  • Maps and Topogs
    • Grand Medicine Pow-wow
    • Michler's Reports from Topographical Department
    • John E. Weyss, Cartographer
    • William H. Paine, Cartographer
    • Gilbert Thompson
  • Confederate Maps
    • Confederate Defenses 1862
    • Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
    • Stevens Map July 1864
    • Fields of Fire
    • Coit's map of the Crater Battlefield
  • Federal Maps
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • Undated Federal Engineers Map--June-July, 1864
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • 18th Corps, June 18, 1864
    • Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • IX Corps, Peebles and Pegrams Farms Oct. 1864
    • Army of the Potomac, Nov. 2, 1864
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • Manuscript Survey, 1865
    • Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • Michler Map Series 1865-1867
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • Confederate Leadworks
  • Federal Forts and Batteries
    • Battery X
    • Fort Alexander Hayes
    • Fort Avery
    • Fort Conahey
    • Fort Davis & Battery XXII
    • Fort Fisher
    • Fort Meikel --Photographic Views
    • Fort Morton
    • Fort Patrick Kelly
    • Fort Sedgwick, better known as Fort Hell,
    • Fort Wadsworth -- the Evolution
    • Fort Willcox or Battery XVI
    • Hare House Hill
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shand House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • U. S. Engineers at the Williams House
    • Williams House
  • Signal Towers and Trees
    • Some Operations of the Signal Corps at Petersburg
  • Archeology
    • Geology of the Crater
    • Fieldwork -- Petersburg
    • Civil War Sinks
    • Deserted Confederate Camp
    • Gracie's Countermine
    • LIDAR Forts and Batteries
  • Articles, Papers, Presentations
    • Shiman: A Note on Maps
    • The Siege Landscape: Through Fire and Ice at Petersburg
    • "The Rebel in the Road"
    • "A Strange Sort of Warfare Underground"
    • Lost Trenches of Petersburg: June 17
    • Between the Lines
    • Combat Trenching: An Introduction
  • Encyclopedia
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    • Combat >
      • June 30, 1864, Attack
      • Combat Entrenching
      • Trench Warfare in Civil War History
      • Chamberlain at Petersburg, June 18, 1864
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • New: Shot tower

FORT FISHER     1864 until today...

The fort begins its existence as works are thrown up in the vicinity during the Battle of Peebles Farm (September 30-October 2, 1864).

PictureNARA, College Park, RG 77.

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NARA, College Park, RG 77.
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NARA, College Park. RG 77.
The fort was originally a simple "squarish" redoubt with a low profile, seven gun platforms in a tight configuration and four embrasures. Two barbette guns were mounted in the forward angles. Fort Fisher was connected to Fort Welch by a straight segment of parapet as shown in the map (above left). At a later date the parapet was pushed to the front and an angle added, likely to bring fire into the low ground. A siege battery was built into the angle. The map (above right) shows the original configuration as a dashed line. In winter, Federal engineers began a major overhaul of the fort, eventually expanding it into a large bastioned fort, capable of mounting fourteen guns.
Mid-winter 1864-65
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Harper's Weekly, March 11, 1865, sketch by Horace Heath.
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Harper's Weekly, March 11, 1865, sketch by Horace Heath.
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Late winter 1865
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Fort Fisher in its final configuration, left and above. Michler, Sheet 11, NARA College Park, RG 79.
Major General J. G. BARNARD,
Chief Engineer, Armies in the Field.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER,
February 20, 1865.
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the engineering operations in this army for the week ending February 18, 1865:
...The following extracts are made from the report of Brevet Colonel Spaulding, commanding Fiftieth New York Volunteer Engineers:
The signal tower is so nearly completed that it will be probably finished to-morrow. In the next weekly report drawings of the tower will be furnished, with a detailed description of the work. The work upon Fort Fisher has progressed as rapidly as the state of the weather would permit. Brevet Captain Van Rensselaer reports three-fourths of the parapets completed, and the remainder one-half complete. Platforms are laid for three barbette and three embrasures guns, and two additional embrasure guns will be added to-morrow. This fort can be finished, except the inner works, in four or five days. No bomb-proofs, magazines, or traverses have yet been commenced in this fort....

Captain Dexter has been engaged with his company in getting our platform timber. During the week he has hewn and delivered at Fort Fisher and the battery on its left 3,523 superficial feet of timber, equal to fourteen platforms.
During the week 204 fascines have been made and delivered at Fort Fisher and the eleven-gun battery; 639 gabions have also been made and brought into camp; of these, 417 have been issued for Fort Fisher and for repairing the works on the Ninth Corps front.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. C. DUANE,
Major of Engineers and Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army.

Major General J. G. BARNARD,
Chief Engineer, Armies in the Field.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER,
February 27, 1865.
SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the engineering operations in this army for the week ending February 25, 1865:

...The following extracts from the weekly report of Brevet Colonel Spaulding, commanding Fiftieth New York Engineers, will show the nature and extent of the engineering duties upon which the officers and men of his command have been engaged:
Lieutenant Van Rensselaer reports the parapets of Fort Fisher nearly finished. The work is ready for fifteen guns and is inclosed with abatis. The whole fort will probably be completed to-morrow, except the interior works, and these have not yet been commenced.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. C. DUANE,
Major of Engineers and Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army.
Photographs of Fort Fisher 2006, shortly after site was denuded of trees by the National Park Service
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