Shepherd’s Bombproof

Improved artillery made brick forts obsolete, and rooms covered with sand provided better protection for defenders. At Shepherd’s Battery, the entrance tunnel was 63 feet long and 3 feet wide, and the bombproof itself was 15 by 18 feet and 5 feet high. Despite two immense naval bombardments of approximately 20,000 projectiles each, all thirty covered rooms survived. A photo of Shepherd’s Battery was taken in 1865 after the fall of the fort.

North Carolina · United States