Some of the heaviest fighting at Fort Fisher took place at the "Bloody Gate," where the Wilmington Road entered the fort. Fort commander Col. William Lamb said the enemy could not enter by the river road and that some of the most desperate fighting occurred between the left bastion and the river shore. Capt. Kinchen Braddy, commanding 2nd Company C, 36th North Carolina, had only half his men present at the western salient during the attack and complained that he was left in complete ignorance of the dispositions of other forces and the assignments of commanders in different parts of the fort. When Company D of the First Battalion, North Carolina Artillery arrived at the river road sally port, Braddy had not seen an officer since being assigned there the previous day. Pvt. Zachariah Fulmore wrote that Company D, holding the extreme left of the fort on both sides of the Napoleon, repulsed every charge by Curtis' brigade and also used a Parrott gun near the river to destroy a bridge on the main road into the fort. He recalled that an early shot from the Napoleon cleared the road and drove many attackers to take refuge under that bridge, and he praised the defense of what he called the most defenseless spot in Fort Fisher, which surrendered only after being completely surrounded by another brigade, Pennypacker's.