Battle of Wyse Fork

During the Carolinas Campaign, Union forces under Gen. John M. Schofield advanced from New Bern toward Goldsboro in early March 1865 to open railroad communications and gather supplies for Gen. William T. Sherman, who was moving north after beginning the campaign on February 1, 1865, from Savannah, Georgia, with the goal of joining Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia against Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army. Gen. Jacob D. Cox led the advance until Confederate Gen. Robert F. Hoke’s division blocked the route along Southwest Creek near Kinston, where Confederates held trenches on the west bank near Jackson’s Mill Pond to protect the approaches to Kinston. After Federals entrenched on March 7, facing the Confederate position across the creek, Hoke attacked the Union left flank on the morning of March 8, and later Gen. D. H. Hill attacked the Federal right in support. Hoke’s assault struck Col. Charles L. Upham’s brigade, including the 15th Connecticut and 27th Massachusetts Infantry regiments, and most of the brigade was killed, wounded, or captured. Hoke and Hill together took about a thousand prisoners, the last large capture of Union troops in the war, and the survivors of Upham’s command fell back to entrench in front of Wyse Fork. Fighting continued for the next two days before the Confederates retreated to Kinston, then fell back to Goldsboro and later fought at Bentonville. After bridge repairs, Schofield occupied Kinston on March 19 and reached Goldsboro two days later. During the battle, the Cobb House served as the headquarters of Lt. Col. Samuel Tolles of the 15th Connecticut Infantry, stood in the midst of Hoke’s March 8 attack, and afterward functioned as a Confederate hospital that treated wounded soldiers from both sides; the names of at least six Union soldiers still remain on its attic walls.

North Carolina · United States