Battle of Wilmington The Battle of Wilmington was fought February 11 – 22 , 1865 , during the American Civil War , mostly outside the city of Wilmington , North Carolina . The Union victory in January in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher meant that Wilmington , 30 miles upriver , could no longer be used by the Confederacy as a port . It fell to Union troops after they overcame Confederate defenses along the Cape Fear River south of the city . The Confederate General Braxton Bragg burned stores of tobacco and cotton , among other supplies and equipment , before leaving the city , to prevent the Union from seizing them . Background . After the fall of Fort Fisher , the port city of Wilmington was sealed to any further blockade runners ; the Confederates had no remaining major ports along the Atlantic seaboard . Confederate forces evacuated the other defensive works near the mouth of the Cape Fear River ; they were forced to disable and abandon the heavy artillery since they lacked the means to move them upriver . While the Confederate defeat at Fort Fisher the previous month affected morale somewhat and lead to an increase in desertion , the remaining soldiers also reported that morale remained high . General Braxton Bragg commanded the defenses of Wilmington ; his field forces consisted of General Robert F . Hoke ' s division from the Army of Northern Virginia and some heavy artillery men and home guard . Hoke commanded three of his brigades on the east side of the Cape Fear River , along Sugar Loaf north of Fort Fisher ; Hoke ' s fourth brigade occupied Fort Anderson on the west side of the river . Bragg remained in Wilmington in order to remove a stockpile of government stores and also to prevent the Union forces on the coast from reinforcing Major General William T . Sherman ' s army . Union general in chief , U . S . Grant , wanted to use Wilmington as a base for an advance to Goldsboro , North Carolina ; rail lines from the coast to Goldsboro could be used to resupply William T . Sherman ' s armies , which were then moving north through the Carolinas . In February 1865 , the Union XXIII Corps arrived to reinforce the Fort Fisher Expeditionary Corps , commanded by Major General Alfred H . Terry . Maj . Gen . John M . Schofield took command of the combined force and started moving against the city in mid - February . Battle . Sugar Loaf Line . The Battle of Wilmington consisted of three smaller engagements along the Cape Fear River . A Confederate division under Major General Robert Hoke occupied the Sugar Loaf Line north of Fort Fisher . On February 11 Schofield attacked Hoke ' s Sugar Loaf Line with Alfred Terry ' s corps ; the engagement started in the morning with a bombardment by Union gunboats along the Atlantic side of the fortifications . A half hour later , Terry started his advance but his left wing was hindered by a swamp located along the river . By late afternoon , Schofield and Terry had overrun the Confederate skirmish line but then concluded that the main Confederate works were too strong to be captured by frontal assault ; Schofield decided that he had to capture Wilmington from the western side of the river . Next Major General Jacob D . Cox ' s 3rd Division , XXIII Corps was ferried to the west bank of the Cape Fear River to deal with Fort Anderson , the main fortress guarding Wilmington . Fort Anderson . Rear Admiral David D . Porter ' s gunboats sailed up the river and shelled Fort Anderson silencing all twelve guns . Under the direction of Lt . Commander William B . Cushing the Federal Navy constructed a Quaker ( or fake ) monitor to trick the Rebels into detonating their water mines to make way for Porter ' s gunboats . Both Cushing and Porter where highly pleased with the success of the ploy , however later Confederate reports claimed the garrison was expecting a dummy boat and were prepared . Meanwhile Cox , supported by General Adelbert Ames ' division , advanced up the west bank towards the fort . Cox sent the brigades of Colonel Thomas J . Henderson and Colonel Orlando Moore against the garrison itself while Col . John S . Casement and Col . Oscar Sterhl marched through the swamps around the Confederate flank . Casement and Sterhl encountered Confederate cavalry and pushed it back after a short fight . The fort ' s commander , General Johnson Hagood sensed the trap and received confirmation from Gen . Hoke to pull back to a defensive line along Town Creek to the north . Just as Hagood ' s troops began their retreat , Henderson ' s brigade attacked thus taking the fort rather easily along with a few prisoners . Town Creek . Cox pursued Hagood from Fort Anderson , and on February 19 caught up to the Town Creek Line while Hoke ' s division retreated to a position three miles south of Wilmington , across the river from Hagood ' s force . Terry followed Hoke cautiously , worried about being surprised by an ambush or by a flank attack from his right . By this time Hoke actually outnumbered Terry as Ames ' division was now on the west bank with Cox . Therefore Ames was ferried back across again to Terry and Porter ' s fleet started clearing the river of torpedoes . Terry restarted his advance the next day , encountering Hoke ' s new lines in the afternoon . Once he was convinced that Hoke planned to remain where he was , Terry ordered the Union troops to start building entrenchments while Union gunboats tested the Confederate batteries along the river bank , just west of Hoke ' s division . Hagood had burned the only bridge across Town Creek to slow down Cox and entrenched on the north side of the river . Cox was eager to attempt his encircling plan that , due to Hagood ' s retreat at Fort Anderson , the Federals had been unable to complete . The creek was not fordable , so on February 20 Cox ' s troops found a single flat - bottom boat in the river and used it to ferry three brigades across the creek while the fourth brigade skirmished with Hagood as a diversion . Hagood discovered the flanking movement and decided , since his position was now untenable , to retreat back to Wilmington ; he left two regiments to cover his retreat . The Federals then waded through the swamp and attacked the Confederate flank , routing the two regiments , and taking 375 prisoners along with two pieces of artillery . The next day Cox rebuilt the destroyed bridge and Schofield ' s artillery crossed and along with Porter ' s gunboats both were within range of the city itself . General Bragg saw the hopelessness of the situation and ordered the city abandoned . On February 21 Cox ' s division continued its march toward the city but was delayed by the destroyed bridges across the Brunswick River and by Confederate cavalry , while Hoke ' s division continued to hold off Terry ' s command . Bragg used the 21st to evacuate Union prisoners located there , while evacuating anything of military value ; he also ordered bales of cotton and tobacco burned so that they would not fall into Union hands , along with storehouses , foundries , shipyards , and ships . Bragg retreated with his forces at 1 a . m . on the 22nd ; Cox ' s corps entered the city after 8 a . m . , with Terry ' s forces entering an hour later . Aftermath . The Battle of Wilmington closed the last major port of the Confederate States on the Atlantic coast . Wilmington had served as a major port for blockade - runners , carrying tobacco , cotton , and other goods to places such as Great Britain , the Bahamas , and Bermuda ; much of the supplies for the Army of Northern Virginia came through Wilmington . Now with the port closed , the Union blockade was complete ; the Confederates were unable to find another port along the Atlantic seaboard to replace Wilmington . Bragg came under severe criticism from the press for the Confederate defeat in the Wilmington Campaign . Several members of the Confederate Congress also directed criticism towards Confederate President Jefferson Davis and called for his resignation . Bragg ' s forces from Wilmington retreated towards Goldsboro , North Carolina , where it united with other Confederate forces commanded by General Joseph E . Johnston . The capture of Wilmington gave Sherman ' s forces a base of supply and a supply route to the sea . Schofield was forced to spend some time repairing the damage caused by the Confederates to the rail lines near the city ; he was also forced to use supplies earmarked for Sherman to help paroled prisoners sent to Wilmington and the civilians still living in the city . Schofield ' s forces were reorganized into the Army of the Ohio and from Wilmington he marched inland to join with Sherman ' s forces near Fayettesville .