In 1861–1862, Col. William Lamb and Maj. John Hedrick constructed Fort Anderson, one of several Confederate strongholds protecting Wilmington, a major blockade-running port, by enlarging Fort St. Philip, an earthen wall with gun emplacements extending from the church ruin to the Cape Fear River, and renaming it Fort Anderson. Although Lamb had no engineering experience, he applied to fortification building lessons learned during the Crimean War of 1854–1856. In July 1862, he took command of Fort Fisher downstream and transformed it into the world’s largest earthwork; there, as at Fort Anderson, slaves and Indians moved the dirt and sand one shovelful at a time. Near the river stood massive artillery emplacements mounting nine seacoast cannons, with movable field artillery pieces positioned nearby, while large underground chambers sheltered the garrison and the volatile black powder supply during bombardments. In January and February 1865, after the Federals captured Fort Fisher and Wilmington to cut the Confederate supply line to Virginia, Confederate forces under Gen. Johnson Hagood retreated there from Fort Fisher. The Federals soon followed and found Gen. Robert F. Hoke’s Confederates entrenched from the fort west to Orton Pond. For three days, Union Gen. Jacob D. Cox demonstrated before the fort while gunboats in the river shelled it and a flanking force marched around Orton Pond to attack its unprotected rear. During the early morning of February 19, as the attack began, Hagood evacuated Fort Anderson, and the Federals immediately occupied it.