“ It is the largest city and the chief seaport of the state. Wilmington is served by the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line railways, and by steamboat lines to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore and to ports on the Cape Fear and Black rivers, and is connected by an electric line with Wrightsville Beach, a pleasure resort 12 m. distant on the Atlantic Ocean. Below Wilmington the channel of the Cape Fear river is 20 ft. ”

“ A federal expedition of 150 vessels under Admiral D. D. Porter and land forces (about 3000) under General B. F. Butler approached the fort on the 20th of December 1864; on the 24th the “Louisiana,” loaded with 215 tons of powder, was exploded 400 yds. from the fort without doing any damage; on the 24th and 25th there was a terrific naval bombardment, which General Butler decided had not sufficiently injured the fort to make an assault by land possible ”