FORT FISHER, BATTLE OF
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FORT SUMTER
ing the night, and the following day General Buckner, who was next in command, surrendered with about 14,000 men.
Fort Fisher, Battle of. In December of 1864 General Grant sent an expedition against Fort Fisher, which commanded the entrance to Cape Fear River, below Wilmington, North Carolina. The force consisted of 6,000 troops under General B. F. Butler and a fleet of ironclads under Admiral Porter. After a bombardment, which continued for two days, an assault was attempted on Dec. 24, but was abandoned without serious righting, the works being deemed impregnable. General Grant was dissatisfied with the result, and two weeks later sent General Alfred H. Terry with 8,000 men and a fleet, as before, under Admiral Porter to renew the attempt. Under cover of a bombardment by the fleet, the troops were landed on Jan. 13. The next day the works were stormed, and after a desperate and bloody hand-to-hand struggle, they were carried. Two thousand prisoners and 169 heavy guns were captured.
Fort Francis is on Rainy River, one mile from Rainy Lake (Ontario), and on the main line of the Canadian Northern. It is the Canadian terminus of the Duluth and Rainy Lake and Minnesota and International railways. It also is the terminus of the Rainy River Navigation Company. There is a nne waterpower at this point (Alberton Falls) where 30,000 H. P. are being developed.
Fort Henry. See FORT DONELSON.
Fort Madison, county-seat of Lee County, Iowa, is 18 miles from Burlington. In 1832 the town was established and took the name of the fort built there in 1808. Chief among its manufactures are agricultural implements, automobiles and shoes; besides, the city has flour and lumber-mills, railroad-shops and pork-packing establishments. It is served by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. Population 8,900.
Fort Moultrie is on Sullivan's Island, situated at the entrance to Charleston harbor, South Carolina. It was first built of palmetto-logs and earth, mounting 26 guns, and was unsuccessfully attacked by a British fleet of nine vesesls, mounting 270 guns, in 1776. It was afterward rebuilt in masonry. In the Civil War it fell into the hands of the Confederates, when Major Anderson abandoned it for Fort Sumter in December of 1860.
Fortress Monroe, a fort built on Old Point Comfort, Virginia, to defend Hampton Roads and the approach to Norfolk. It has within it detached buildings for officers' quarters, barracks, storehouses, arsenal, workshops, the artillery school etc. It can mount 187 guns. The fortress is six-sided, and is surrounded by a wet ditch, outside of which are batteries. It covers
80 acres, and cost $2,818,000. It is the largest fort in the "United States.
Fort Scott, Kan., the capital of Bourbon County, on Marmaton River in southeast* ern Kansas, 96 miles south of Kansas City, is the center of a region rich in bituminous coal, cement-rock deposits and extensive flagstone-quarries. The chief revenue is derived from its two railroad-shops, which employ more'than 1,000 hands. Besides, there are manufactories of brick, machinery and syrup. Fort Scott is the largest horse and mule-market of the state. The buildings, chiefly those of the national and county governments, are substantial and commodious, and the city is attractively situated. For some reason, however, its population has not grown in the past decade: it now numbers 10,463 inhabitants.
Fort Smith, Ark., a city on the Arkansas River, on the western confines of the state and adjoining Oklahoma. Here is a United States military reservation devoted to educational purposes, and the city school system consists of nine schools with 85 teachers and 3,500 pupils. It lies 160 miles northwest of Little Rock, and is the seat of the United States district-court of the western district of Arkansas. Its factories include mills, iron-foundries, machine-shops, furniture and wagon-factories etc. It is served by seven railway-systems. Population 23,975.
Fort Sumter, a fort built on an island near the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, S. C. When fully equipped, it was to have 140 guns in three tiers; but at the close of 1860 it had not been finished. In December of that year Major Robert Anderson, who was in command, transferred the garrison of Fort Moultrie, only 109 men, to the new fort, on learning that he was unsafe from attack in the old fort. He could mount only 52 light guns. From January to April, 1861, the fort was, in fact, besieged, as President Buchanan had refused to hand over the South Carolina forts to the state government. On April ii the South Carolinians demanded the surrender of Sumter; and, on this being refused, notice was given that the bombardment would commence at four o'clock the next morning. The fort was seriously damaged by the firing from the shore, which lasted for several hours, but no one was hurt. As provisions and ammunition had given out, Anderson agreed to abandon the works, which he did on April 14. The firing on Fort Sumter was the beginning of the Civil War. The works were stubbornly held by the Confederates till Charleston itself was abandoned in February, 1865, and during the war they were the city's chief defense. The fort was, however, bombarded by a Federal monitor fleet, and later by batteries on Morris Island, and shot into a shapeless ruin.
