Fort Johnston (North Carolina)
Encyclopedia
Fort Johnston was a United States Army
post in Brunswick County, North Carolina
on Moore Street near Southport, North Carolina
. It stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River
, four miles above its mouth.
33°55′5.41"N 78°1′3.04"W
in 1744 appointed a committee to select the best location to construct a fort for the defense of the Cape Fear River region. France meanwhile declared King George's War
against Britain in 1744. The Governor of South Carolina agreed to lend ten small cannons for the fort. Facing increasingly bold Spanish privateer raids, the General Assembly of North Carolina colony in April 1745 authorized the construction of "Johnston's Fort" near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. In spring 1748, the legislature appropriated 2000 pounds for construction costs, and people finally began building Fort Johnston.
Two Spanish privateers in summer 1748 intended to seize slaves working on construction of the fort. Finding none at the time of their raid, the privateers sailed upriver and attacked Brunswick, North Carolina
by sea and land, looting the town and taking hostages over two days. The local militia eventually drove the raiders back to their ships, but the Spanish privateers continued to bombard the town for a third day. Only after one privateering ship accidentally exploded and sank did the fleet retreat toward the sea.
Although Governor Johnston declared the fort complete in April 1749, work on the fortification, the first in North Carolina colony, continued to progress well into the 1750s. North Carolina garrisoned the fort with a few dozen militia soldiers and used it for coastal protection and as a quarantine station for incoming mariners. The militia men included Captain Robert Howe
, first stationed at Fort Johnston in 1766.
, British royal governor of North Carolina colony, at New Bern, North Carolina
, on 24 April 1775; Governor Martin then sent his family to New York, transferred his headquarters to Fort Johnston on 2 June 1775, and instigated a plot to arm the slaves. After the patriots discovered this plot, John Ashe
of Wilmington Committee on Safety led a group of patriotic colonists in a plot against Fort Johnson in July 1775. Governor Martin and his supporters removed most military stores, dismounted the cannon of the fort, and fled aboard the British sloop-of-war Cruizer at anchor in the Cape Fear River. American patriots controlled, burnt, and destroyed Fort Johnston, including the home of its commandant. Governor Martin rallied Loyalist forces from his offshore redoubt.
During winter 1775/1776, British army sent seven regular regiments and two companies of artillery to the lower Cape Fear region, aspiring to rouse Loyalist colonists to take arms to restore Royal Governor Martin to power. Colonel James Moore, however, routed a numerically superior force of Scottish Highlanders in Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge on 27 February 1776, and the British abandoned their strategy. The British fleet still maintained some control of the region for the succeeding few years.
In 1778, North Carolina General Assembly appropriated £5000 to rebuild Fort Johnston and named Captain Robert Ellis to command the fort. When British Major James Henry Craig
entered the region on 25 January 1781, Captain Ellis left Fort Johnston. Major Craig aimed to establish a supply base for General Charles Cornwallis and probably destroyed the nascent Fort Johnston again. General Cornwallis later surrendered to American General George Washington
after Siege of Yorktown
, Virginia, on 19 October 1781. American troops under General Griffith Rutherford
advanced toward Wilmington in mid-November 1781, and British Major Craig withdrew.
apparently opposed incorporation of the town in the state General Assembly in 1790; however, the legislature supposedly named the town in his honor to gain his support. His opponents allegedly supported the idea only because they believed that the town would not prosper. The town started with one hundred half-acre lots.
In March 1794 with war raging in Europe, the Congress appropriated funds for the first system of Seacoast defense in the United States to fortify sixteen critical ports on the seaboard, provided that states provide the land. North Carolina quickly ceded the land to the federal government. Although reconstruction began in July 1794, work on Fort Johnston progressed slowly over decades. Politician Benjamin Smith (North Carolina) ultimately agreed to sponsor the reconstruction of the fort. Major Joseph Gardner Swift
characterized the fortification work at Fort Johnston as "dilapidated" upon inspecting the post in January 1810. The fort probably contained a seawall, battery, quarters for officers, barracks for enlisted men, powder magazine, bakery, and other buildings. The fort rented a building at the corner of Nash and Howe streets from Smithville town commissioners as a hospital. The Army built quarters for officers at the fort about 1810.
In spring 1812, the Army formed a new unit, the "Sea Fencibles," composed of river pilots who resolved to serve on land and sea. Governor William Hawkins assigned four militia companies from coastal southern North Carolina to Fort Johnston to strengthen the defenses of Cape Fear
during the War of 1812
. Many locals feared that Fort Johnston provided inadequate defense for the region. The British, however, did not attack the region during the war.
After the War of 1812, an individual sergeant sometimes commanded Fort Johnston, and the Army abandoned it altogether at least once while engaging its troops elsewhere. Nevertheless, the surgeon began to record meteorological observations from the early 1820s. Its garrison departed to fight in Second Seminole War
in 1836. The Army completed Fort Caswell two miles away in 1838, reducing the importance of Fort Johnston. The Fort Johnston garrison again departed to fight in Mexican–American War
in 1846.
Soldiers at Fort Johnston enjoyed cordial relations with the civilian population of Smithville, North Carolina, throughout the antebellum years, making it a desirable posting. Early in January 1861, a delegation from Wilmington approached Governor John Willis Ellis
, seeking his permission to allow seizure of Fort Johnston from the Union forces, but he denied their request.
in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina
, however, Governor Ellis ordered the recapture of Fort Johnston, and the caretaker Ordnance Corps (United States Army) sergeant again surrendered it. North Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 May 1861 and joined Confederate States of America
.
Early in the American Civil War
, Fort Johnston emerged as a center of Confederate States Army
recruitment and training. Fort Johnston also served as a supply depot for the local system of fortifications, storing and distributing vast quantities of military hardware and sustenance. The Confederacy also massively renovated and upgraded the defenses of the region, including Fort Johnston, Fort Caswell, and Fort Fisher
. Five hundred slaves and three hundred Indians in bondage undertook some of the labor on this huge construction program.
The Confederacy increasingly depended on blockade runners breaking through the Union Navy lines to maintain trade necessary to sustain the war effort. With two inlets on the Cape Fear River, dangerous shoals to trap Union ships lacking the knowledge of local river pilots, the Cape Fear River made an ideal spot for blockade running. Fort Johnston coordinated these attempts and provided critical protective cover to Confederate shipping. The first Confederate steamer to run the Union blockade entered Wilmington in December 1861, and trade through Port of Wilmington increased through 1862, especially after the Union Navy successfully sealed Charleston, South Carolina, to Confederate shipping in summer 1862. An average of one ship a day ran the blockade successfully throughout 1863 and 1864. The fort and its garrison maintained the security of the Cape Fear River against Union army and naval forces with weapons, munitions, and supplies imported from Europe, Canada, Bermuda, Cuba, and eventually other Caribbean territories. Railroads carried goods from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Richmond, Virginia
, providing critical supplies to Confederate General Robert E. Lee
and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
.
The Confederacy in late 1862 renamed Fort Johnston as Fort Branch in honor of Confederate Brigadier General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch
, a local who died in Battle of Antietam
. In 1863, the Confederate Army renamed Fort Branch as Fort Pender in honor of Confederate Major General William Dorsey Pender
, who died of wounds sustained at Battle of Gettysburg
.
In late 1864, President Abraham Lincoln
, determined to deal a "mortal blow" to the Confederacy, developed a strategy with his military advisors to cease the only significant sustained blockade running activity, that originating from the Cape Fear River outlet. On 24 December 1864, Union warships began an intense bombardment of nearby Fort Fisher
, and after a persistent onslaught, Union forces captured the vastly undermanned Fort Fisher on the evening of 15 January 1865. Brigadier General Louis Jagger Hébert
then commanded Fort Pender. Facing thousands of Union troops, the Confederate garrisons in the area withdrew to Wilmington, North Carolina
, and Union forces seized an undamaged Fort Pender on 17/18 January 1865.
Union Naval Lieutenant William B. Cushing
led the first contingent of Yankees into Smithville, North Carolina, took the 44 sick or wounded occupants of the Confederate hospital at Fort Pender as prisoners, met with a committee of citizens, demanded the surrender of all private arms, and raised the Flag of the United States
. Union troops staged at Fort Pender for their advance against Fort Anderson (North Carolina)
and thence into Wilmington, which fell on 22 February 1865.
The Confederacy surrendered and vanished in spring 1865, and military Reconstruction of the American South began thence. At the conclusion of the American Civil War, name of Fort Pender reverted back to Fort Johnson.
In June 1881, Signal Corps (United States Army) reoccupied the fort. The facility later passed to the Weather Bureau, United States Army Corps of Engineers
, and Surveying Corps.
United Service Organizations
occupied the fort during World War II. During the early 1950s, Fort Johnston hosted officers from an air rescue unit of United States Air Force
.
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point
opened in 1955 and used Fort Johnston. From the 1950s, the facility maintained housing for four military families and one unaccompanied soldier. The family of the commanding officer typically lived at the main building at Fort Johnston.
National Register of Historic Places listings in Brunswick County, North Carolina, added Fort Johnston on 7 June 1974.
process. North Carolina Maritime Museum
at Southport opened on the former fort property.
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
post in Brunswick County, North Carolina
Brunswick County, North Carolina
-External links:*******....
on Moore Street near Southport, North Carolina
Southport, North Carolina
Southport is a city in Brunswick County, North Carolina, near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. It is part of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. It stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River
Cape Fear River
The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina in the United States. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The overall water quality of the river is continuously measured and monitored by and conducted by the , , and the...
, four miles above its mouth.
33°55′5.41"N 78°1′3.04"W
Colonial
Before the construction of Fort Johnston, British settlements along the Carolina coast lacked fortifications to protect them against pirates and privateers, and numerous Spanish attackers exploited this weakness. In response to these attacks, Governor Gabriel JohnstonGabriel Johnston
Gabriel Johnston was the colonial governor of North Carolina from 1734 to 1752, the longest-serving governor in state history.- External links :*...
in 1744 appointed a committee to select the best location to construct a fort for the defense of the Cape Fear River region. France meanwhile declared King George's War
King George's War
King George's War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession . It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia...
against Britain in 1744. The Governor of South Carolina agreed to lend ten small cannons for the fort. Facing increasingly bold Spanish privateer raids, the General Assembly of North Carolina colony in April 1745 authorized the construction of "Johnston's Fort" near the mouth of the Cape Fear River. In spring 1748, the legislature appropriated 2000 pounds for construction costs, and people finally began building Fort Johnston.
Two Spanish privateers in summer 1748 intended to seize slaves working on construction of the fort. Finding none at the time of their raid, the privateers sailed upriver and attacked Brunswick, North Carolina
Brunswick, North Carolina
Brunswick is a town in Columbus County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 360 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Brunswick is located at ....
by sea and land, looting the town and taking hostages over two days. The local militia eventually drove the raiders back to their ships, but the Spanish privateers continued to bombard the town for a third day. Only after one privateering ship accidentally exploded and sank did the fleet retreat toward the sea.
Although Governor Johnston declared the fort complete in April 1749, work on the fortification, the first in North Carolina colony, continued to progress well into the 1750s. North Carolina garrisoned the fort with a few dozen militia soldiers and used it for coastal protection and as a quarantine station for incoming mariners. The militia men included Captain Robert Howe
Robert Howe (soldier)
Robert Howe was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.-Early life:His great-grandfather was James Moore, colonial governor of South Carolina...
, first stationed at Fort Johnston in 1766.
American Revolution
American patriots attacked home of Josiah MartinJosiah Martin
Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Martin was the last colonial governor of the Province of North Carolina .-Family and connections:...
, British royal governor of North Carolina colony, at New Bern, North Carolina
New Bern, North Carolina
New Bern is a city in Craven County, North Carolina with a population of 29,524 as of the 2010 census.. It is located at the confluence of the Trent and the Neuse rivers...
, on 24 April 1775; Governor Martin then sent his family to New York, transferred his headquarters to Fort Johnston on 2 June 1775, and instigated a plot to arm the slaves. After the patriots discovered this plot, John Ashe
John Ashe
John Ashe may refer to:*John Ashe *John Ashe , American Revolutionary War figure*John Baptista Ashe , North Carolina delegate to the Continental Congress...
of Wilmington Committee on Safety led a group of patriotic colonists in a plot against Fort Johnson in July 1775. Governor Martin and his supporters removed most military stores, dismounted the cannon of the fort, and fled aboard the British sloop-of-war Cruizer at anchor in the Cape Fear River. American patriots controlled, burnt, and destroyed Fort Johnston, including the home of its commandant. Governor Martin rallied Loyalist forces from his offshore redoubt.
During winter 1775/1776, British army sent seven regular regiments and two companies of artillery to the lower Cape Fear region, aspiring to rouse Loyalist colonists to take arms to restore Royal Governor Martin to power. Colonel James Moore, however, routed a numerically superior force of Scottish Highlanders in Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge on 27 February 1776, and the British abandoned their strategy. The British fleet still maintained some control of the region for the succeeding few years.
In 1778, North Carolina General Assembly appropriated £5000 to rebuild Fort Johnston and named Captain Robert Ellis to command the fort. When British Major James Henry Craig
James Henry Craig
General Sir James Henry Craig KB was a British military officer and colonial administrator.-Early life and military service:...
entered the region on 25 January 1781, Captain Ellis left Fort Johnston. Major Craig aimed to establish a supply base for General Charles Cornwallis and probably destroyed the nascent Fort Johnston again. General Cornwallis later surrendered to American General George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
after Siege of Yorktown
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, Battle of Yorktown, or Surrender of Yorktown in 1781 was a decisive victory by a combined assault of American forces led by General George Washington and French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau over a British Army commanded by Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis...
, Virginia, on 19 October 1781. American troops under General Griffith Rutherford
Griffith Rutherford
Griffith Rutherford was an officer in the American Revolutionary War, a political leader in North Carolina, and an important figure in the early history of the Southwest Territory and the state of Tennessee....
advanced toward Wilmington in mid-November 1781, and British Major Craig withdrew.
Antebellum period
Following the American Revolution, peace prevailed, and Fort Johnston underwent a period of physical decay. The community of Smithville, North Carolina, (later renamed Southport) gradually developed around the fort. Benjamin SmithBenjamin Smith
Benjamin Smith was the 16th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1810 to 1811.Smith was born in Brunswick County, North Carolina into a socially prominent family...
apparently opposed incorporation of the town in the state General Assembly in 1790; however, the legislature supposedly named the town in his honor to gain his support. His opponents allegedly supported the idea only because they believed that the town would not prosper. The town started with one hundred half-acre lots.
In March 1794 with war raging in Europe, the Congress appropriated funds for the first system of Seacoast defense in the United States to fortify sixteen critical ports on the seaboard, provided that states provide the land. North Carolina quickly ceded the land to the federal government. Although reconstruction began in July 1794, work on Fort Johnston progressed slowly over decades. Politician Benjamin Smith (North Carolina) ultimately agreed to sponsor the reconstruction of the fort. Major Joseph Gardner Swift
Joseph Gardner Swift
Joseph Gardner Swift, the first graduate of the United States Military Academy, was born on 31 December 1783 on Nantucket Island, the son of Foster Swift and his wife, Deborah...
characterized the fortification work at Fort Johnston as "dilapidated" upon inspecting the post in January 1810. The fort probably contained a seawall, battery, quarters for officers, barracks for enlisted men, powder magazine, bakery, and other buildings. The fort rented a building at the corner of Nash and Howe streets from Smithville town commissioners as a hospital. The Army built quarters for officers at the fort about 1810.
In spring 1812, the Army formed a new unit, the "Sea Fencibles," composed of river pilots who resolved to serve on land and sea. Governor William Hawkins assigned four militia companies from coastal southern North Carolina to Fort Johnston to strengthen the defenses of Cape Fear
Cape Fear
Cape Fear is a prominent headland jutting into the Atlantic Ocean from Bald Head Island on the coast of North Carolina in the southeastern United States. It is largely formed of barrier beaches and the silty outwash of the Cape Fear River as it drains the southeast coast of North Carolina through...
during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. Many locals feared that Fort Johnston provided inadequate defense for the region. The British, however, did not attack the region during the war.
After the War of 1812, an individual sergeant sometimes commanded Fort Johnston, and the Army abandoned it altogether at least once while engaging its troops elsewhere. Nevertheless, the surgeon began to record meteorological observations from the early 1820s. Its garrison departed to fight in Second Seminole War
Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars...
in 1836. The Army completed Fort Caswell two miles away in 1838, reducing the importance of Fort Johnston. The Fort Johnston garrison again departed to fight in Mexican–American War
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
in 1846.
Soldiers at Fort Johnston enjoyed cordial relations with the civilian population of Smithville, North Carolina, throughout the antebellum years, making it a desirable posting. Early in January 1861, a delegation from Wilmington approached Governor John Willis Ellis
John Willis Ellis
John Willis Ellis was the 35th Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1859 to 1861.Ellis attended the University of North Carolina, studied law under Richmond Mumford Pearson, practiced law, and was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly from Rowan County. He served as a state...
, seeking his permission to allow seizure of Fort Johnston from the Union forces, but he denied their request.
American Civil War
Local rebels, however, did not await secession of North Carolina before seizing Fort Johnston from the Union. They approached the sole caretaker sergeant posted at the fort and demanded its surrender on 8 January 1861. The Union soldier recognized his inability to mount a defense, conceded to their demands, and informed his superiors in Washington. Governor Ellis, however, compelled the rebels to evacuate the seized fort and return it to Union control. After the fall of Fort SumterFort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, however, Governor Ellis ordered the recapture of Fort Johnston, and the caretaker Ordnance Corps (United States Army) sergeant again surrendered it. North Carolina seceded from the Union on 20 May 1861 and joined Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
.
Early in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Fort Johnston emerged as a center of Confederate States Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
recruitment and training. Fort Johnston also served as a supply depot for the local system of fortifications, storing and distributing vast quantities of military hardware and sustenance. The Confederacy also massively renovated and upgraded the defenses of the region, including Fort Johnston, Fort Caswell, and Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865....
. Five hundred slaves and three hundred Indians in bondage undertook some of the labor on this huge construction program.
The Confederacy increasingly depended on blockade runners breaking through the Union Navy lines to maintain trade necessary to sustain the war effort. With two inlets on the Cape Fear River, dangerous shoals to trap Union ships lacking the knowledge of local river pilots, the Cape Fear River made an ideal spot for blockade running. Fort Johnston coordinated these attempts and provided critical protective cover to Confederate shipping. The first Confederate steamer to run the Union blockade entered Wilmington in December 1861, and trade through Port of Wilmington increased through 1862, especially after the Union Navy successfully sealed Charleston, South Carolina, to Confederate shipping in summer 1862. An average of one ship a day ran the blockade successfully throughout 1863 and 1864. The fort and its garrison maintained the security of the Cape Fear River against Union army and naval forces with weapons, munitions, and supplies imported from Europe, Canada, Bermuda, Cuba, and eventually other Caribbean territories. Railroads carried goods from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, providing critical supplies to Confederate General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
.
The Confederacy in late 1862 renamed Fort Johnston as Fort Branch in honor of Confederate Brigadier General Lawrence O'Bryan Branch
Lawrence O'Bryan Branch
Lawrence O'Bryan Branch was a North Carolina representative in the U.S. Congress and a Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of Antietam.-Early life and career:...
, a local who died in Battle of Antietam
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...
. In 1863, the Confederate Army renamed Fort Branch as Fort Pender in honor of Confederate Major General William Dorsey Pender
William Dorsey Pender
William Dorsey Pender was one of the youngest, and most promising, generals fighting for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.-Early life:...
, who died of wounds sustained at Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg , was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac...
.
In late 1864, President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, determined to deal a "mortal blow" to the Confederacy, developed a strategy with his military advisors to cease the only significant sustained blockade running activity, that originating from the Cape Fear River outlet. On 24 December 1864, Union warships began an intense bombardment of nearby Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865....
, and after a persistent onslaught, Union forces captured the vastly undermanned Fort Fisher on the evening of 15 January 1865. Brigadier General Louis Jagger Hébert
Louis Hébert (Confederate Army officer)
Louis Hébert was an American educator, civil engineer, writer and soldier who became a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
then commanded Fort Pender. Facing thousands of Union troops, the Confederate garrisons in the area withdrew to Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
, and Union forces seized an undamaged Fort Pender on 17/18 January 1865.
Union Naval Lieutenant William B. Cushing
William B. Cushing
William Barker Cushing was an officer in the United States Navy, best known for sinking the Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle during a daring nighttime raid on October 27, 1864, a feat for which he received the Thanks of Congress.-Early life and career:Cushing was born in Delafield, Wisconsin,...
led the first contingent of Yankees into Smithville, North Carolina, took the 44 sick or wounded occupants of the Confederate hospital at Fort Pender as prisoners, met with a committee of citizens, demanded the surrender of all private arms, and raised the Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
. Union troops staged at Fort Pender for their advance against Fort Anderson (North Carolina)
Fort Anderson (North Carolina)
Fort Anderson was an early fort in the lower Cape Fear Region of North Carolina, at Brunswick Town in Brunswick County. It was used as a Confederate Fort during the American Civil War. The fort was pivotal in protecting the Cape Fear River inlets and Wilmington upstream. Earthen batteries...
and thence into Wilmington, which fell on 22 February 1865.
The Confederacy surrendered and vanished in spring 1865, and military Reconstruction of the American South began thence. At the conclusion of the American Civil War, name of Fort Pender reverted back to Fort Johnson.
Postwar period
After the American Civil War, the War Department generally moved to reduce the number of coastal fortifications and the number of troops in the Army. United States Army, however, continued to garrison Fort Johnston through Reconstruction. In December 1880, the Army transferred the garrison from Fort Johnston to Washington, District of Columbia. On 21 February 1881, the government officially ended role of Fort Johnston in Seacoast defense in the United States.In June 1881, Signal Corps (United States Army) reoccupied the fort. The facility later passed to the Weather Bureau, United States Army Corps of Engineers
United States Army Corps of Engineers
The United States Army Corps of Engineers is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 38,000 civilian and military personnel, making it the world's largest public engineering, design and construction management agency...
, and Surveying Corps.
United Service Organizations
United Service Organizations
The United Service Organizations Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization that provides morale and recreational services to members of the U.S. military, with programs in 160 centers worldwide. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of Defense , and has provided support and...
occupied the fort during World War II. During the early 1950s, Fort Johnston hosted officers from an air rescue unit of United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
.
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point
Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point is the largest military terminal in the world. It serves as a transfer point between rail, trucks, and ships for the import and export of weapons, ammunition, explosives and military equipment for United States Army...
opened in 1955 and used Fort Johnston. From the 1950s, the facility maintained housing for four military families and one unaccompanied soldier. The family of the commanding officer typically lived at the main building at Fort Johnston.
National Register of Historic Places listings in Brunswick County, North Carolina, added Fort Johnston on 7 June 1974.
Decommissioning
After 2004, the Army declared Fort Johnston surplus and ceased operations, independent of the Base Realignment and ClosureBase Realignment and Closure
Base Realignment and Closure is a process of the United States federal government directed at the administration and operation of the Armed Forces, used by the United States Department of Defense and Congress to close excess military installations and realign the total asset inventory to reduce...
process. North Carolina Maritime Museum
North Carolina Maritime Museum
The North Carolina Maritime Museum is a divisional museum of the North Carolina Museum of History. There are several branches of the Maritime Museum located in Beaufort, Southport and Roanoke Island.-North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort:...
at Southport opened on the former fort property.