- Joined
- Jun 2, 2013
- Location
- Columbus, OH
We visited the Joseph Ryder Lewis, Jr. Civil War Park in Carolina Beach, NC, today. This very nice little park was just dedicated in February. It represents what’s left of the Sugar Loaf line, which was an auxiliary line north of the Fort Fisher defenses (Fort Fisher was about four miles south). Maj. Gen. Robert F. Hoke held this line with about 4,500 Confederate troops. The line extended all the way across the island.
The first attacks on the Sugar Loaf line occurred on January 19, 1865, when two Union brigades, including a brigade of U. S. Colored Troops, were repulsed. An entire division of U. S. C. T. did the bulk of the fighting in the so-called Battle of Sugar Loaf on February 11, when the Confederate infantry repulsed their attacks against the stout earthworks.
The Confederate troops pulled back toward Wilmington after other Confederate troops abandoned Fort Anderson on the west bank of the Cape Fear River on February 19, 1865, which enabled Union gunboats to shell the Sugar Loaf line from close range. Wilmington fell on February 22, meaning that the last port open to blockade runners was now closed forever.
The first attacks on the Sugar Loaf line occurred on January 19, 1865, when two Union brigades, including a brigade of U. S. Colored Troops, were repulsed. An entire division of U. S. C. T. did the bulk of the fighting in the so-called Battle of Sugar Loaf on February 11, when the Confederate infantry repulsed their attacks against the stout earthworks.
The Confederate troops pulled back toward Wilmington after other Confederate troops abandoned Fort Anderson on the west bank of the Cape Fear River on February 19, 1865, which enabled Union gunboats to shell the Sugar Loaf line from close range. Wilmington fell on February 22, meaning that the last port open to blockade runners was now closed forever.