An important dispatch: the answer to the question posed by Lee in the document sealed the fate of the Army of Northern Virginia and of the Confederacy.

              Wilmington, North Carolina, situated on the Cape Fear River, twenty-eight miles from the river's mouth was the most important port of the Confederacy and a major supply and distribution center further enhanced by three railway lines connecting the port to the interior.

               In the fall of 1862, the head of the Confederate Ordnance Bureau, Josiah Gorgas, chose Wilmington as the port of entry for his bureau's line of blockade runners. The steamers, operating out of St. George, Bermuda, some 674 miles away, brought immense amounts of military supplies to Wilmington and carried away government cotton. In charge of the Ordnance Bureau's operations at Wilmington was James M. Sexias. The Ordnance Bureau's runners were soon joined by private runners who also saw the advantages of using Wilmington, and in July 1863, after the Federal attack on Charleston effectively closed down blockade running there, Wilmington became the South's primary port and the most important element in the Confederate supply system.

             Because of its vital importance to the Confederacy Wilmington was guarded by a number of fortifications. For the bulk of the war Wilmington's commander was Brig. Gen. W. H. C. Whiting, who worked to make Wilmington one of the best defended cities in the Confederacy.  An outer ring guarded New and Old Inlets while other forts lined the Cape Fear River, and the city was encircled by a line of trenches. Its major fortifications were Fort Caswell at Old Inlet and Fort Fisher at New Inlet. Since most blockade runners preferred New Inlet, Fort Fisher, under the command of Col. William Lamb, became the most important and largest fort in Wilmington's defenses.

             During 1864, the blockade-running trade at Wilmington greatly increased as the South's demand for overseas goods grew. Though luxury items continued to arrive, the Confederacy placed tighter restrictions on the blockade runners, which resulted in the importation of vast amounts of military goods. Besides munitions Wilmington was also the receiving point for the Army of Northern Virginia's meat rations. General Robert E. Lee, knowing the reliance of his army on the supplies coming into Wilmington, reported that should the port fall, he would be unable to maintain his troops.

             Throughout the war the North attempted to keep Wilmington under a tight blockade, but the port's widely spaced entrances forced the Union navy to split its warships into two squadrons that could not support each other. This division of strength coupled with the power of the Confederate forts stymied any effective blockade. Though active operations against Wilmington had been considered as early as the summer of 1862, the North was unable to put together a combined army and navy expedition against Fort Fisher until December 1864. Two assaults were made against the fort, and it, along with Whiting and Lamb, was captured on January 15, 1865.

             The fall of Fort Fisher ended Wilmington's role as a blockade-running port and effectively cut the Confederacy's lifeline to Europe. Though the Confederates, under General Braxton Bragg, continued to resist Northern advances against Wilmington for another month, the city's fate as well as that of the Confederacy was sealed, and on February 22, 1865, while a rear guard destroyed government property and records, Bragg evacuated Wilmington.

       American National Biography, volume 3, pp., 396-397 and volume 13, pp., 392-397