Capt. Joseph B. Starr’s Battery held this position against the Union advance on December 14, defending the Confederate line with its remaining smoothbore cannon after losing one gun at Southwest Creek the day before. Confederate artillery had been placed at key positions to support thinly stretched infantry, and a South Carolina soldier recalled that attacks on the right were repulsed several times by artillery and infantry, with the guns sending the enemy back at every onset. Starr and the rest of the Confederate line held for hours against a much larger Union force, while a soldier in the 17th Massachusetts remembered the Confederate fire as rapid, well directed, and destructive to the attacking columns. Starr remained in place until his ammunition was exhausted, then withdrew across the Neuse River as Union infantry pressed forward, abandoning one gun after all of its horses were killed by Union fire.