Edward Tyndall’s documentary airs tonight at 10 on UNC-TV

Confederate Goliath, produced by Edward Tyndall and Kenneth Price, chronicles the battles to capture Fort Fisher and close the port of Wilmington, NC during the American Civil War.

Late in 1864 and again in January of 1865 Federal troops attacked Fort Fisher with a massive naval armada and a large contingent of ground troops. Fort Fisher was the largest earthen fort in the Western Hemisphere at the time of the attacks. The campaigns to capture the fort boasted the heaviest naval bombardments seen during the Civil War. The fort fell during the second battle but only after brutal hand-to-hand fighting that lasted into the night. With the fall of Fort Fisher, the port of Wilmington, NC was effectively closed and the supply line to Robert E. Lee’s Army in Virginia was cut. Lee surrendered his army three months later and the American Civil War came to a close.