of low grade North Carolina bituminous coal and denounced Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory for giving the stockpile of smokeless anthracite to (a raiding cruiser) so that none was left for Advance to run out of Wilmington safely. Writing on 3 January 1865, Vance complained: Why a State struggling for the common good, to clothe and provide for its troops in the public service, should meet with no more favor than a blockade gambler passes my comprehension. Advance was condemned by the New York prize court, and she was purchased by the Navy that same month; then commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 28 October 1864, Lt. Comdr. John H. Upshur in command. Civil War service Bombardment of Fort Fisher Advance departed New York City on 30 October; arrived off Wilmington, North Carolina, on 14 November; and joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In addition to her reversed role—catching blockade runners as opposed to being one—she participated in the two expeditions against Fort Fisher, located on Confederate (Federal) Point at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. The first – abortive—attempt was carried out between 24 and 26 December 1864 after a bizarre attempt to flatten some of the defenses by running what amounted to a fire-ship stocked with some 30 tons of gunpowder aground at a point some 250 to 300 yards north of the fort. Needless to say, that unique shore bombardment proved to be a huge flash in the pan causing little or no damage. When the fleet moved in on 24 December, Advance was in the 1st Reserve Division which appears to have constituted a second line of bombarding ships behind the ironclads. She fired only her large 20-pounder rifle and stopped that when she had to go to the assistance of the stricken and tow her to a safe anchorage. The following day, Christmas 1864, she and five or six other warships moved off to draw fire from Half Moon Battery as preparation for the Army's landings. Though an 8-inch gun in the Confederate battery drove off other vessels in the division as well as some Union Army transports, Advance claimed credit for silencing that gun with her heavy rifle. The Army landed late Christmas Day. Firing continued through the day and intermittently that night—fire that degenerated into covering fire to protect the bogged-down Federals instead of a bombardment preparatory to