the by-then cancelled assault. Advance retired from Cape Fear on the 26th and the remnants of General Butler's Army force embarked on the 27th. After a visit to Norfolk, Virginia, for supplies between 31 December 1864 and 11 January 1865, Advance returned to her blockade station off the Cape Fear River mouth on 13 January – Friday the 13th, to be exact, an ominous day for the Southerners defending Fort Fisher. Before dawn that day, the Federal fleet unleashed a terrific bombardment on the fort. Not long thereafter, around 0800, about 8,000 Union troops began landing on the peninsula north of the fortifications. The following day, the fleet resumed its bombardment while the Union Army began landing its own supporting artillery. Advance, in one of the reserve divisions, helped support the landing of the Army guns and supplies while the bulk of the fleet continued to batter the Fort Fisher defenses. The main attack commenced on 15 January 1865. The Army, aided by sailors and marines from the fleet, stormed the Southern positions. Heavily outnumbered and outgunned, the Confederates fought with the tenacity and ferocity of desperation—more often than not at close quarters with bayonets and rifle butts. They fought the entire day and into the evening but to no avail. The last fortifications, Battery Buchanan and the Mound, gave up at about 2200 hours (10 p.m.) that evening. The Navy had closed the eastern portion of the Confederacy's last avenue of contact with the outside world. North Atlantic blockade operations Advance resumed duty on the blockade. With the last deep-draft Confederate port closed, few runners tried to make the run. Those that did were of very shallow draft and of even more limited cargo capacity than that characteristic of their deep-draft predecessors. That fact made blockade running a highly unprofitable venture considering the danger involved. As a consequence, Advance participated in no captures. Instead, she served as a dispatch and supply ship for the remainder of her tour of duty with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. End-of-war activity On 11 February, she put into Norfolk for a month of repairs before embarking passengers and sailing for New York City on 13 March. She reached that port the following day and entered the New York Navy Yard. On 16 March 1865, Advance was detached from the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron and was placed out of commission at New York City.