Fort Johnston was originally built by the British in 1748 to protect the region from Spanish and French attack. Since then it served for 250 years to become the oldest active-duty fort in the United States. Fort Johnston was ultimately conveyed to the City of Southport in 2006.
From 1748 to 1887, the name of the town where the fort was first built, changed from
Smithville to Southport, North Carolina. The history of the coastal town, Fort Johnston and the United States of America experienced change through
the passing years. What follows is a Wikipedia summary Fort Johnston’s history
during the American Civil War 1861 - 1865.
Local citizens sympathetic
with the confederate cause, 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 Sumter 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 the
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.
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| Ft. Fisher Across the Cape Fear River from Ft. Johnston |
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.
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| Blockade Runner Run Aground Southport, NC |
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 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.
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| Artist's Conception of Ft. Johnston |
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, the name of Fort
Pender reverted to Fort Johnston.
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| Fort Johnston Headquarters Today |
Little to no fortifications
remain from the Civil War era.
