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By the end of the year 1864, Wilmington was the South’s last open seaport on the Atlantic coast and was protected by Fort Fisher in North Carolina. On December 24 the Union Navy and Army made a combined assault on Fort Fisher, but were turned back after two days of fighting. The combined force returned on January 12, 1865, and engaged the fort in three days of combat from sea and land. The campaign culminated in a six-hour battle on January 15 during which at least 30 men earned Medals of Honor and the important fort was captured. Ordinary Seaman Louis Shepard served on board the U.S.S. Wabash in the assault on Fort Fisher. Advancing gallantly through severe enemy fire while armed only with a revolver and cutlass which made it impossible to return the fire at that range, Ordinary Seaman Shepard succeeded in reaching the angle of the fort and in going on, to be one of the few who entered the fort. When the rest of the body of men to his rear were forced to retreat under a devastating fire, he was forced to withdraw through lack of support and to seek the shelter of one of the mounds near the stockade from which point he succeeded in regaining the safety of his ship. |
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