Wilmington, North Carolina, was the Confederacy's most important seaport during the Civil War, and by 1864 it was the last Atlantic port open to trade with the outside world. General Robert E. Lee said, “If Wilmington falls, I cannot maintain my army.” The geography of the Cape Fear made it difficult for Union blockading ships to stop blockade-runners from smuggling military supplies into Wilmington and cotton out. Old Inlet at the mouth of the Cape Fear River and New Inlet five miles to the north gave access to the harbor, with Bald Head Island and Frying Pan Shoals separating the two entrances. Bald Head Island was the key to controlling the inlets and Wilmington, and an intricate system of Confederate defenses was designed and built under the direction of Major General W.H.C. Whiting. Fort Holmes on Bald Head Island and Fort Caswell on Oak Island guarded Old Inlet, Fort Fisher safeguarded New Inlet, and Fort Johnson at Smithville and Fort Anderson at Brunswick Point protected the river approaches to Wilmington. At the height of its occupation in 1864, Fort Holmes, named for Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes of North Carolina, was garrisoned by more than 1,100 Confederate soldiers. They evacuated Fort Holmes on January 16, 1865, the day after Union forces captured Fort Fisher, destroying barracks, storehouses, and cannons in the process, while leaving the lighthouse untouched. Union forces occupied Bald Head Island three days later. On the shifting coastal barrier island, changing water and land covered portions of Fort Holmes with sand debris and even water as early as the 1870s.
