at Grovely Plantation. On January 15, 1865, Dr. Bellamy and his family learned that Fort Fisher had fallen to the federal troops under General Alfred H. Terry. This was a devastating blow to the Confederacy, as Wilmington was the last major port supplying the southern states. While the family was still at Grovely Plantation, Federal troops arrived in Wilmington on February 22, having pushed many of the Confederate troops inland. Union officers took shelter in the nicer homes in town whose owners had been forced to abandon them. The Bellamy House was quickly occupied and chosen to be headquarters for the military staff. On March 1, 1865, General Joseph Roswell Hawley was placed in charge of the Wilmington District and assigned the Bellamy House. Soon after, the General’s wife Harriet Foote Hawley, an experienced war nurse, arrived in Wilmington in April 1865 to help tend to the wounded. After the official end of the war in April 1865, the Federal Government seized southern property, including land, buildings, and homes of Dr. Bellamy. The Bellamys came to reclaim their house, but Dr. Bellamy was not allowed into Wilmington, courtesy of General Hawley — Dr. Bellamy's reputation preceded him. Gen. Joseph Hawley wrote about Dr. Bellamy to another Union officer upon receipt of Dr. Bellamy’s oath of allegiance to the federal government stating, "As a specimen of the temper of certain people I inclose a copy of an application from J.D. Bellamy, which explains itself. Bellamy was a rabid secessionist here and tyrannized over all suspected of Unionism. He ran away, but only to get under the feet of General Sherman’s forces. From a neighboring county he sends in this appeal. I have answered verbally that having for four years been making his bed, he now must lie on it for awhile. I have no time to take him within the lines." Mrs. Bellamy had traveled into Wilmington in May 1865 to meet with Mrs. Harriett Foote Hawley hoping to retrieve her home. It is assumed that it wasn't easy for Eliza Bellamy to be entertained by a "yankee" in her own home, but it has been reported that she behaved as a proper Southern lady, and acted with politeness. Ellen describes her mother as having intentions of regaining their home, but the meeting did not go as planned. Eliza and Harriett were very different with one major difference being Eliza was