Completed in 1805, the Dismal Swamp Canal connects Albemarle Sound with the Chesapeake Bay, and during the Civil War both sides sought control of it to transport troops and supplies. In December 1861, the 3rd Georgia Infantry marched by the lock here on its way north to winter quarters in Portsmouth, Virginia, moving through South Mills and Deep Creek while its baggage traveled in the canal. On February 10, 1862, CSS Beaufort raced past this lock northward to Norfolk after surviving clashes with Union naval forces in Albemarle Sound, but CSS Appomattox was too wide to pass through the lock and the Confederates scuttled her nearby. In April 1862, fearing that a Confederate ironclad would reach Albemarle Sound by way of the canal, Union General Jesse L. Reno's command attacked Confederate fortifications at South Mills, forcing a retreat but failing to destroy the locks. From December 5-24, 1863, Union General Edward A. Wild led U.S. Colored Troops along the canal from Norfolk to South Mills and Camden Court House on a punitive expedition; Confederate guerrillas from the Great Dismal Swamp harassed the force but did not stop it from freeing 2,500 slaves. The canal was repaired after the war, and today two locks survive, at South Mills and Deep Creek.