War Never Witnessed More Determined Bravery.

War Never Witnessed More Determined Bravery.. Col. William Lamb on the defense of Shepherd's Battery. Colonel Lamb had no fear about the successful defense of Shepherd's Battery, which stands directly in front of you. On the afternoon of January 15, 1865, approximately 250 Confederates defended this position. Included in the defenses were a 12-pound Napoleon at the gate, a mine field of torpedoes in front of the land face, and the anticipation of additional help from 350 South Carolinians from Hagood's Brigade. However, the torpedoes were disabled during the naval bombardment, and Hagood's brigade did not move up in time to reach the fort. Thus the remaining forces, outnumbered more than ten to one, had to withstand the attack of three of General Ames's brigades., Shepherd's Battery was crucial to the defense of the fort. If the enemy was not stopped from entering the fort here, they would be able to gain possession of the interior. Despite the defenders' best efforts, the first battle flag to come up belonged to the 117th New York, which was promptly placed on the second traverse., The position of the Stars and Stripes was bitterly contested, with men firing their rifles point-blank into the faces of their opponents. They plunged into brutal hand-to-hand fighting, swinging their rifles like clubs. The living trampled and stumbled over the bodies of the dead, dying, and wounded. Cpl. Henry Clay McQueen of the 1st North Carolina Battalion Heavy Artillery, Company D saw twelve of his fellow artillerymen killed in the fighting for Shepherd's Battery. The Union forces won, and the fighting moved east down the land face, traverse by traverse., Sgt. Edward King Wightman, 3rd New York, was in the vanguard of the Union assault on Shepherd's Battery. He was killed by a bullet that passed through his right arm and into his chest. His father later made the journey to Fort Fisher to retrieve his son's body and take it back to his home state of Connecticut., I shall ever believe, that if my order to man the parapet had been obeyed all along the line on the left, the assaulting column would have been repulsed until I could have reinforced my men, and I would have been able to hold the Fort on that fatal Sunday afternoon...but the fatal mistake of the Commander was fighting from behind the revetment instead of from the top of the parapet as ordered... Col. William Lamb, [I] looked around and saw the stars and stripes floating from the top of the parapet, with what seemed to me to be a thousand bluecoats around it. Pvt. Zachariah Fulmore, 1st Battalion N.C. Heavy Artillery, Company C, (captions) , View of the land front, showing a destroyed gun carriage in the second traverse. Library of Congress, Pvt. Zachariah Fulmore, Shepherd's Battery Defense, In honor of our ancestors from Alabama, North Carolina, and Maine who served in the American Civil War , Patrick McCullough and Family