After the skirmish at Raft Swamp, Brig. Gen. Griffith Rutherford moved his rather large army down the north side of the Cape Fear River towards Wilmington. He divided his troops and sent Col. Robert Smith along the south side of the river, paralleling Rutherford's route. Col. Robert Smith then dispatched Maj. Joseph Graham on towards Wilmington.

At Alfred Moore's Plantation (known as Buchoi), a mile below the ferry at Wilmington, Maj. Graham and his troops surprised a group of about 100 Loyalists. He raced his cavalry onto the plantation grounds and scattered the Loyalists without any serious loss. The Loyalists had twelve men killed and thirty men wounded.