Battle of Plymouth- CSS Albemarle Ironclad  

The Battle of Plymouth was the last major Confederate victory of the Civil War and the third largest battle fought in North Carolina.

Two North Carolinians, Gen. Robert F. Hoke and Gen. Matthew W. Ransom, led the Confederate infantry while Commander James W. Cooke, another native son, had charge of the ironclad ram CSS Albemarle. Since 1862, the U.S. Army had occupied Plymouth, a strategic port and transportation center in a rich agricultural region. By 1864, the Roanoke River and the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad comprised “The Lifeline of the Confederacy” for Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army in Virginia. To protect that lifeline, Lee dispatched Hoke to dislodge the Union garrison at Plymouth, about 3,000 men under Gen. William H. Wessells. The Federals had constructed an extensive system of forts, redoubts, and trenches, and five gunboats under Commander Charles W. Flusser helped protect the town.

April 17–20, 1864

Hoke had about 13,000 troops and the ironclad ram CSS Albemarle, newly christened and untested in battle.