The severity of the experience of the Reserves on the Belfield expedition may be realized when it is stated that although they had been in camp over six months and had been somewhat enured to a soldier’s life, over one-half of them were sent to the hospital when the battalions returned to Wilmington.
The command was marched from Tarboro to Goldsboro and by train was conveyed to Wilmington, and thence back to Sugar Loaf. There they remained under the command of General W. W. Kirkland until the battle of Fort Fisher. This officer was a splendid fighter and a superb soldier. He was Colonel of the Twenty-first North Carolina Regiment, and afterwards commanded Early’s Brigade, Pettigrew’s Division. He had taken part in many of the desperate battles of Virginia and had been twice severely wounded. He was transferred to Wilmington late in December and established his headquarters at Sugar Loaf.
The three battalions composing the Third Regiment of Junior Reserves participated brilliantly in the defence of Fort Fisher, when attacked by General B. F. Butler and Admiral Porter on 23, 24 and 25 December, 1864.
Fort Fisher was located on the point of a narrow peninsula which extends southwardly from New Inlet between the ocean and Cape Fear river, near its mouth. It defended Wilmington, the last remaining port through which army supplies, ammunition, clothing and food for Lee’s Army were brought in by blockade runners. Under its guns, the “Ad-Vance” brought in supplies of inestimable value to the North Carolina troops. Its defence was of supreme importance to the Confederacy. It was an earthen fort of an irregular form, with bastions at the angles. The land face, 250 yards long, was continuous from ocean to river. The sea face was 1,300 yards long. Both faces were mounted with heavy guns, mortars and light artillery, presenting a formidable front to the enemy. It was the strongest earthwork built by the Confederacy, and really, as Admiral Porter said, “stronger than the Malakoff tower which defied so long the combined power of France and England.” Two miles above the fort were the Half Moon and the Flag Pond Batteries, and a mile and a quarter below, and at the extreme end of the peninsula, Battery Buchanan with four heavy guns.