North Carolina History ~ American Civil War
- North Carolina was the most reluctant Southern state to join the succession
- NC was the last to break with the Union
- The Civil war has often been referred to as a rich mans war and a poor mans battle. If a man had enough money (usually $300), he could buy his way out of the draft in both the Union and Confederate armies.
- NC sent more troops than any other state in the Confederacy to fight in the War. 40,000 North Carolinians gave their lives to the Southern cause either in battle or from disease.
- NC had the highest desertion rate of any state in the Confederacy.
- Vance was the Governor of NC during the Civil War and is known as the War Governor. See section on Vance Birthplace.
- The Civil War on both sides was a Rich Man's war and a poor man's fight. Rich families paid their son's way out of the draft, poor men did not have the money to pay their way out. This happened on both sides. The common fee was $300.
Western North Carolina in the Civil War
- Western North Carolina had many Union sympathizers.
- People in WNC were poor and few owned slaves. Many were abolitionists.
- The underground railway that helped many slaves to freedom in the north ran through the Asheville area.
- Governor Vance was from Weaverville located in Western North Carolina. see section on Vance Birthplace.
- Buncombe Riflemen was a Volunteer Confederate Outfit.
- Asheville Armory supplied the Confederacy with Ammunition and Arms
- Stoneman's Raid came through Western North Carolina
Cherokee Indians During the Civil War
The Cherokee Indians signed a declaration of secession and fought on the Confederate side.
See Cherokee Indians Facts for more details on Cherokee Native Americans.
The Confederate Cherokees: John Drew's Regiment of Mounted Rifles
State troops and volunteers : a photographic record of North Carolina's Civil War soldiers
Field Hospitals in WNC
Calvary Episcopal Church
Blake House Asheville NC
The Confederate soldiers were cared for in the bedrooms upstairs. Some of the nurses took pity on the injured Union soldiers and cared for them in the tunnel system under the Inn.
North Carolina Civil War Battlefields & Museums | More North Carolina Civil War Facts
Books on NC during the Civil War
Many of the Books featured in this section on the Civil War have a slew of information in the review section and many offer a "look inside."
The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War
Ashe County's Civil War: Community and Society in the Appalachian South
Mountain Partisans: Guerrilla Warfare in the Southern Appalachians 1861-1865
This is the story of a civil war within the Civil War. Many mountain whites in Southern Appalachia opposed the Confederacy, especially when the South's conscription and impressment policies began to cause severe hardships. Deserters from the Rebel army hid in the mountains and formed guerrilla bands that terrorized unprotected Confederate homesteads. Violence escalated as Rebel guerrillas fought back. The conflict soon took on some of the ugliest aspects of class warfare between poorer mountain whites, who were usually Unionists, and the more well-to-do mountain property owners, who supported the Rebels. Mountain Partisans penetrates the shadowy world of Union and Confederate guerrillas, describes their leaders and bloody activities, and explains their effect on the Civil War and the culture of Appalachia.
The Civil War and Yadkin County, North Carolina
A small western Piedmont county in North Carolina is the subject of this very unusual Civil War history. Written by a local historian with a rich knowledge of the county and its people, the book weaves the colorful threads of local characters and events into the big picture of the greatest war in our history. Battlefield stories and army life are recounted, partly in letters written home by Yadkin soldiers in the field, but the most intriguing events are those that occurred on the home front. In a region of sharply divided loyalties, the woods of Yadkin County soon filled with "bushwhackers", men hiding out to escape conscription into the Confederate army. The book tell of the locally famous shoot-out between some of these men and the Militia, of their arrest and the jail breaks that set them free, of executions by the Home Guard, and of the treks to Tennessee to join the Union army. In the last days of the war a Yankee Cavalry division led by George Stoneman rode through the county and Cassstevens treats us to previously unpublished stories of his famous raid.
The Civil War in North Carolina The Mountains written by William R. Trotter is an epic backdrop for the great military war that occurred behind the scenes in the Mountainous regions of the western North Carolina Appalachian's. The book attempts to document much of the violence that did take place such as Fratricidal Raiding and Bushwhacking skirmishes that took place amid small bands of men whom operated under no regular military command. There was no Official Reports filed on most of this fighting. Major connections to East Tennessee, as well, this book is a pleasure and more a treasure for anyone interested in history and genealogical findings on their ancestors that traveled thru the southern states to freedom.
Clingman's Brigade in the Confederacy 1862-1865
On November 11, 1862, Brigadier General Thomas Lanier Clingman, despite a lack of formal military training, was named commander of four regiments sent to the eastern counties of North Carolina to prevent Federal troops from making further inroads into the state. Clingman has been called one of North Carolina’s most colorful and controversial statesmen, but his military career received little attention from his contemporaries and has been practically ignored by later historians. Like Clingman, the brigade, composed of the 8th, 31st, 51st, and 61st regiments of North Carolina Infantry, has been both praised and condemned for its performance in battle.
Clingman settled near Clingman's Dome NC after the war. The Mountain top is named for General Clingman.
Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War
Lee's Tar Heels: The Pettigrew-Kirkland-McRae Brigade
More Terrible Than Victory: North Carolina's Bloody Bethel Regiment,1861-1865
Other Articles
- A Typical Plantation Home
- North Carolina Civil War Battlefields & Museums
- Shelton Laurel Massacre Civil War
American Civil War Websites
Links to Other Informative Web Sites about the Civil War: General information with links to other Civil War information