Alleged unnamed Local historians dispute this account, claiming that one of the Union objectives of the Goldsborough Campaign (also known as Foster's Raid) was to destroy an ironclad ramming boat that the Confederates were building on the north bank of the Neuse river at that location.

Near sundown on December 16, fearing they would be caught between Confederate forces from Kinston and others thought to be marching from Goldsborough, the Federals abandoned their attempt to cross the river at Whitehall and withdrew to the west.

The Union men claimed they had won because they inflicted serious damage on the CSS Neuse, and because the forces resisting the United States were unable to halt the Army's advance.

However, the Confederates claim they won, since they inflicted heavier casualties on the attackers than they suffered, prevented the United States from crossing the river, and had kept the gunboat from being totally destroyed.

The CSS Neuse was completed late in the war, but she ran aground on a sandbar before reaching the sea and had to be scuttled to prevent her capture.