From April 17-20, 1864, the Battle of Plymouth became one of the largest battles fought in North Carolina and among the last major Confederate victories of the Civil War. Since 1862, the U.S. Army had occupied Plymouth, a strategic port and transportation center on the Roanoke River whose Federal use threatened the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, a vital supply line for Gen. Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia. To protect that line, Lee sent Gen. Robert F. Hoke to drive out the Union garrison of about 3,000 men under Gen. William H. Wessells. The Confederates, led on land by Hoke and Gen. Matthew W. Ransom and supported by Commander James W. Cook aboard the ironclad ram CSS Albemarle, brought about 13,000 troops against a town defended by forts, redoubts, trenches, and five gunboats under Commander Charles W. Flusser. Fighting began on Sunday, April 17, and lasted until Wednesday. On April 19, the Albemarle rammed and sank the gunboat Southfield, and Flusser was killed in the action. Hoke and Ransom took most of the fortifications, and Wessells raised the white flag of surrender the next day. The Confederates captured about 2,500 prisoners, most of them sent to Andersonville, Georgia, along with 25 cannons, 500 horses, 5,000 stands of small arms, and the port itself.