Fort Fisher was the last Confederate stronghold for supplies. The second battle was the last for General Whiting. The tough and savvy general, known as "Little Billy," does not rest in peace. He was seriously wounded and was taken to Governor's Island prison in New York by the Union soldiers. There they left him to die, so far from home. He has been seen occasionally at dusk in his Confederate uniform mounting the parapet and gazing into the the distance for a sign of Union troops.

"Little Billy" shares the Fort Fisher area with another ghost known as "The Sentinel". He appears to be a Confederate soldier standing guard in a grove of pines north of the fort.

Duck hunters saw the ghost around the turn of the century. They were so frightened by the apparition they dropped their ducks and ran. A friend returned later and found a barrel from an old rifle, the kind a Confederate sentinel might have used on his post.