Site Visit Saturday: Battery Buchanan

 

  Fortifications below Wilmington, and along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, began not long after North Carolina left the Union. These fortifications would eventually grow into places well known to us today, places like Fort Fisher on the east bank of the river, and Fort Anderson on the west bank.

   In 1864, another fortification was constructed on the furthest tip of the peninsula, now known as Federal Point, but called Confederate Point during the war. The new fortification was called Battery Buchanan, named for Admiral Franklin Buchanan of the Confederate Navy. It was a two-tiered, oval-shaped earthwork one mile south of Fort Fisher. Within this sand battery were four cannons – two 10” Columbiads and two 10” Brooke Smoothbores. They were under the command of Captain Robert Chapman and manned by Confederate sailors, and then later Confederate States Marines.

   Even after the capture of Fort Fisher by Federal forces in January 1865, Battery Buchanan held, kind of. Some of the Confederate defenders of Fort Fisher fell back to this position, including the wounded Major General WHC Whiting, and Fort Fisher’s commanding officer, Colonel William Lamb. Yet these new soldiers found that the Battery’s defenders had spiked their guns and withdrawn across the Cape Fear River. With the threat of being overrun by the 27^th USCT, those inside the abandoned Battery surrendered.

   The remnants of Battery Buchanan were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and the site is open for visits. More information can be found at the Fort Fisher visitor center.

   I have visited this site numerous times over the past twenty-five years. This image was taken in June 2012.