In the late stages of the Civil War, Union forces sought to move up the rail line from New Bern through Kinston to Goldsboro to unite with Sherman and open a supply route through eastern North Carolina, while Confederate troops entrenched on Southwest Creek tried to block them. For three days the armies fought in the fields and woods south and east of the creek. Union Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox commanded over 13,000 soldiers, mostly from the divisions of Brig. Gen. Innis N. Palmer and Brig. Gen. Samuel P. Carter, while Gen. Braxton Bragg led 12,500 Confederates in divisions under Gen. Robert F. Hoke and Gen. D. H. Hill, including the Junior Reserves. By March 6 Union troops had gathered in Gum Swamp three miles east of Wyse Fork, where movement along the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad and through swampy ground was hampered by heavy rains and too few wagons. On the evening of March 7, advance Union guards skirmished with Confederates at Wyse Fork as Palmer’s division moved into position east of the creek. March 8 brought the Confederates’ strongest effort, as Hoke’s division advanced down Upper Trent Road and around the millpond to strike the Federal left flank while Hill’s division crossed the creek and hit the right. The 15th Connecticut, south of Dover Road and east of Jackson’s Mill, was besieged, Colonel Charles L. Upham’s brigade broke apart, 890 men were captured, and horses and guns were abandoned. By day’s end Confederate forces, supported by artillery, held a line along British Road. That evening Brig. Gen. Thomas H. Ruger’s division arrived to reinforce the Federals, and on Cox’s orders Union troops quickly built a continuous line of breastworks on both sides of Lower Trent Road, using boards as shovels because supplies were short. On March 9 Confederates probed the Union right flank with a reconnaissance down the Neuse Road, and artillery fire continued through the night. At 11:30 AM on March 10 they launched a vigorous assault on the extreme left of the Union line, then returned to attack the center; Union positions were tested and driven in but held, and the 66th NC Regiment came within 50 yards of the Federal works under heavy fire. At 2:30 PM the Confederates made their final charge, Union skirmishers fell back to the main rifle pits, and with nightfall Bragg’s troops withdrew to Kinston. After Bragg’s withdrawal, the crew of the ironclad Neuse burned and sank their ship. The battle, also known as the Battle of Kinston and the Battle of Southwest Creek, was one of the largest concentrations of troops ever assembled on North Carolina soil, surpassed only by Bentonville. More than 225 Confederates were taken prisoner and an unknown number were left dead or dying on the field, while Union casualties over the three days were 57 killed and 265 wounded. The fighting succeeded as a Confederate delaying action, but Bragg failed to defeat Cox and withdrew as Federal strength mounted, and in the following days both sides moved on toward Goldsboro and the last major conflict in the state at Bentonville on March 19-21, 1865.