The Wilmington Campaign: “Last Rays of Departing Hope” -2026

A BGES Civil War Field University Program

With Dr. Chris Fonvielle

February 11–15, 2026; from Wilmington, NC

In late 1864, Gen. Robert E. Lee warned North Carolina authorities: “If Wilmington falls, I cannot maintain my army.” The message was abundantly clear. The survival of the Army of Northern Virginia, and thus the Confederacy, depended upon Wilmington’s survival as the last major seaport open to foreign trade.

For more than three years, Confederate blockade runners had smuggled vital supplies, weapons, equipment, and food through the Union naval cordon off the Cape Fear coast and into Wilmington’s docks. From there, war material moved by rail to the front while civilian goods bolstered the home front. By 1863, the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad emerged as one of Lee’s principal arteries, and within a year, it had become his most critical—earning the titles “Lee’s Lifeline” and the “Lifeline of the Confederacy.”

Dr. Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., Professor Emeritus of History at UNC Wilmington and a leading authority on the Lower Cape Fear in the Civil War, will cover blockade running, Union operations to seize the city, and Confederate defenses. He will also lead tours of key Wilmington Campaign sites, including Fort Fisher, the Sugar Loaf Line, and the Battle of Forks Road.

Itinerary

Wednesday, February 11, 2026 – Orientation (6–7 p.m.)

Meet Dr. Fonvielle at our headquarters hotel for an orientation and overview of the sites and themes we’ll cover. Program materials will be distributed here (or the following morning for late arrivals).

Dinner is on your own.

Thursday, February 12, 2026

Today, we will travel to Fort Fisher State Historic Site for a full-day symposium on the Civil War history of the Lower Cape Fear. Presentations include:

• The Wilmington Campaign: “Last Rays of Departing Hope” – Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., Professor Emeritus, UNC Wilmington
• “The Naval Services in the Lower Cape Fear River” – Andrew Duppstadt, Assistant Curator of Education, N.C. Division of State Historic Sites
• “Development of the Cape Fear Defense System” – Jim McKee, Site Manager, Brunswick Town / Fort Anderson State Historic Site
•  “India Ink and Permanent Marks: Tattoos among Sailors at Fort Fisher” – Beck Sawyer, Collections Manager, Fort Fisher State Historic Site
• “Welcoming Sherman: 1865 Logistics Operations on the North Carolina Coast” –Wade Sokolosky, author and leading expert on Sherman’s 1865 Carolinas Campaign.

We will finish the day by exploring the newly completed Fort Fisher State Historic Site Visitor Center.

Lunch is included for tour attendees, but those who attend only for this lecture day should bring their own lunch.

Friday, February 13, 2026

We return to Fort Fisher for Dr. Fonvielle’s field presentations on the First and Second Battles of Fort Fisher from inside the newly reconstructed fort. We then head back toward Wilmington, exploring the remaining sections of the once-strong Confederate Sugar Loaf Defensive Line. We start at the Joseph Ryder Lewis Civil War Park, near the eastern end of the Sugar Loaf Line, and later travel to explore the western earthworks, stretching to the Cape Fear River. From Sugar Loaf, we’ll go upriver to the Battle of Forks Road site, the final engagement before the Confederate evacuation of Wilmington. Here, we’ll visit the beautifully crafted life-size figures of the U.S. Colored Troops Memorial.

(Note: This day will incur quite a bit of walking, especially when we explore the Sugar Loaf Defensive Line. Walking shoes and hiking sticks are encouraged. Unfortunately, due to the remoteness, there is no means to transport the group.)

Lunch is provided, but dinner is on your own.

Saturday, February 14, 2026

We depart the hotel en route to Brunswick Town and the Fort Anderson State Historic Site. Along the way, we will discuss Gen. Jacob D. Cox’s resounding defeat of Confederate Gen. Johnson Hagood’s forces at the Battle of Town Creek, the last stand west of the Cape Fear River.

At Fort Anderson, Site Manager Jim McKee and Dr. Fonvielle will guide us through the wonderfully preserved earthen fort, which, along with the Sugar Loaf Line, anchored the main Confederate defensive line upriver toward Wilmington. As a bonus, we have been granted permission to explore portions of this line on Orton Plantation, which is not open to the public.

We will depart en route to Oak Island, where we have permission to walk among the remnants of Fort Caswell, a Third System masonry fort that was completed in 1838 to defend the Old Cape Fear Inlet. Our guides, McKee and Fonvielle, will help tell the story of this historic site, taking us through the fort’s history through two separate wars.

Lunch is provided, but dinner is on your own.

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Keeping with the theme of Civil War forts, we will travel up the coast to Fort Macon State Park near Morehead City, another Third System fort that fell to Federal forces under Gen. Ambrose Burnside in April 1862.

Lunch is provided, but dinner is on your own.

About the Faculty

Chris E. Fonvielle Jr. is a native Wilmingtonian with a lifelong passion for the Civil War, North Carolina, and the history of the Cape Fear region. He attended public schools, including New Hanover High School, class of 1971, where he was the first soccer-style placekicker in North Carolina football history.

After earning his B.A. in anthropology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Dr. Fonvielle served as the final curator of the Blockade Runners of the Confederacy Museum. He went on to receive his M.A. in American history from East Carolina University and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina—making him a Wildcat, Seahawk, Pirate, and Gamecock.

Following a brief teaching stint at East Carolina University, Dr. Fonvielle returned to his alma mater, UNCW, in 1996, where he taught courses on the Civil War, Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear, and Antebellum America. His scholarship focuses on coastal operations and defenses, as well as blockade running in southeastern North Carolina. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope; Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear: An Illustrated History; and Fort Fisher 1865: The Photographs of T.H. O’Sullivan.

In 2014, then-Gov. Pat McCrory appointed Dr. Fonvielle to the North Carolina Historical Commission. Upon his retirement from UNC Wilmington in 2018, he was honored with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, one of North Carolina’s highest civilian awards, presented by Gov. Roy Cooper for his distinguished service to the state. Today, he continues to share his deep knowledge of the region as a regular guide with Wilmington Water Tours.

Hotel Information

This program will be headquartered at Hampton Inn Medical Park, 2320 South 17th Street, Wilmington, NC 28405 (910-796-8881). The BGES special hotel rate is $104 plus tax, with a rate cut-off date of January 12, 2026. When you call the hotel, be sure to tell them that you are booking your room with the group “Blue and Gray Education” to get the special rate. The hotel does not have an airport shuttle.

Transportation

The servicing airport is Wilmington International Airport (ILM).

Recommended Reading

• Paul Branch, Fort Macon: A History. Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Arcadia Publishing, 2013. ISBN: 978-0738599373.
• Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Publishing Co., 1997. ISBN: 978-1882810093.
• Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., Fort Anderson: Battle for Wilmington. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing, 1999. ISBN: 978-1882810246.
• Chris E. Fonvielle Jr., Glory at Wilmington: The Battle of Forks Road. Carolina Beach, NC: NC Starburst Press, 2020. ASIN: B085DHL471.
• Ethel Herring and Carolee Williams, Fort Caswell: In War and Peace. Fort Caswell, NC: NC Baptist Assembly, 1983. ASIN: 0967189713.
• Mark A. Moore, The Wilmington Campaign and the Battles for Fort Fisher. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-1882810192.

Tour Pricing

Current BGES Member $825 (one-time payment, no deposit)
Non-BGES member $875 (one-time payment, no deposit)
Deposit to reserve spot: $150
Annual membership fee: $75

Attending Symposium Day only (Thursday) $25 (Bring your own lunch)

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The Wilmington Campaign: “Last Rays of Departing Hope” -2026

Registration includes 4 lunches, all paid admissions, maps, the academic program, support of a historian and a tour director, and transportation by passenger bus or van. We will also provide snacks and bottled water.

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