Multiple cannon blasts marked the commemoration of the 148th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Fisher on January 19, 2013. Fort Fisher State Historic Site hosted “Sheppard’s Battery: Confederates Defending the Left Flank,” a living history program that focused on the Confederate defenders at Sheppard’s Battery and at the fort’s “Bloody Gate.” Civil War re-enactors set up displays of camp life and spoke with visitors about the life of the Confederate infantry and artillery troops during the January 1865 campaign.
Throughout the day, infantry and artillery units conducted drills and firing demonstrations, including the site’s rifled and banded 32 pund cannon atop Sheppard’s Battery.
Speakers at the event included local historian Ernie Kniffen, who discussed new findings on his extensive research of Confederate sailors and Marines. Also, author Richard Triebe signed books and discussed NC troops who were captured at Fort Fisher and sent to a prison camp in Elmira, NY. Also on site was author, educator, and member of the Wilmington Railroad Museum board of trustees, James Burke, who signed and promoted his book, “The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad in the Civil War.”
