Fort Fisher State Historic Site

Fort Fisher is said to be haunted by General W.H.C. Whiting, the fort's commander, whose apparition is described with his distinctive mustache and starred coat wandering the earthworks he helped build; local accounts say he lingers because he predicted the slaughter and his requests for support were ignored. Visitors also report a mysterious sentinel, the fort's other commander, Colonel William Lamb, disembodied footsteps, phantom screams and gunshots. The Confederacy built the fort at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, and it was the last major port open to blockade runners until it fell to a combined Union assault in January 1865; Whiting was wounded in the final assault and died as a prisoner. The state historic site includes a museum, a reconstructed earthwork section and the surviving mound.