The Battle of Forks Road in Wilmington, North Carolina, in February 1865, was one of the closing armed engagements bringing the Civil War to an end.
By late 1864 almost all the Confederate supply lines from the Atlantic Ocean had been cut by Union forces. Wilmington was the South’s last major open port. Blockade runners could still make it into the Cape Fear River. Once supplies were off-loaded in Wilmington, there were three railroad lines from where they could be sent to wherever the Confederate Army needed them.
In the summer of 1864, General Lee had said: “If Wilmington falls, I cannot maintain my army.”
