The First Battle of Fort Fisher, was a siege fought from December 23–27, 1864, was a failed attempt by Union forces to capture the fort guarding Wilmington, North Carolina, the South's last major port on the Atlantic Ocean. The Union navy first attempted to detonate a ship filled with powder in order to demolish the fort's walls but this failed; the navy then launched a two-day bombardment in order to demolish the fort and force the Confederate defenders to surrender. On the second day of the bombardment, the Union army started landing troops in order to begin siege operations but the landings were called off when the weather became too bad.
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