"When one totals the North Carolinians that died in World War I, World War II, Korea
and Vietnam, it is far less than North Carolina's American Civil War death toll."
CONFEDERATE:
WESTERN
NORTH CAROLINA REGIMENTS AND BATTALIONS
(AKA Mountain Troops; Mountaineers; Highlanders)
North Carolina provided at least 125,000 soldiers to the Confederacy, and
the Tar Heel
State recruited more soldiers than any Southern state. Over 620,000 died in the Civil War and 40,000 were North Carolinians. The Old North
State provided 69 infantry regiments and 4 infantry battalions; 9 cavalry
regiments and 9 cavalry battalions; 2 heavy artillery battalions, 4 artillery regiments, 3 light artillery
battalions, and 4 light artillery batteries. Several North Carolina infantry regiments mustered 1,500 soldiers,
while few regiments mustered as many as 1,800. North Carolina's sole legion, Thomas' Legion, mustered over 2,500 soldiers. The average Civil War regiment mustered
1,100 soldiers. The North Carolina mountain counties also recruited several companies which served in the predominately
“Piedmont”
and “Coastal Plain” regiments. Western North Carolina even recruited numerous “Home Guard, Junior and Senior Reserves, and State Militia companies.”
Western North Carolinians also served in East Tennessee, northern Georgia, southwest Virginia, and "Upstate" South Carolina regiments. Western
North Carolina in 1861, depending on which cartographic map you study, included 20 or 21 western counties (see North Carolina Maps). In 1861, however, there were 21 mountain counties and 71%
of North Carolina's slave population resided in the Coastal Plain Region, with the Southern Appalachian Mountains considered the poorest of the three North Carolina Regions. The Mountaineers, a.k.a. Highlanders, fought and died in the bloodiest battles of the War, and, in the
below list of regiments, Western North Carolina recruited at least one company for the listed regiment or the entire
regiment hailed from the North Carolina mountains. A Guide to Military Organizations and Installations of North Carolina 1861-1865, explains the numerical designations according to branch of service and the nature and character of each unit's
organization. The North Carolina Mountain Regiments and Battles offers a "single page view" of Western North Carolina's contributions for the regiments, and it further reflects
how many mountaineer or highlander companies served in each regiment.
* Component of the Thomas Legion (a.k.a. 69th North Carolina Regiment). The Thomas Legion consisted
of the following components: Walker's Battalion (a.k.a. 80th Battalion), Love's Regiment (a.k.a. Thomas' Infantry Regiment
and Love's Infantry Regiment), Cherokee Battalion, Cherokee Bodyguards, Levi and Barr's Light Artillery Battery, and the Pioneer
Companies.
UNION:
NORTH CAROLINA
REGIMENTS
There were eight Union regiments raised in North Carolina, four white and four of African descent.
The two mounted infantry units were raised in the Western Region of the state, and all other units were raised in the east.
RecommendedReading: Western North Carolina and the American Civil War
Sources: Official Records of the
Union and Confederate Armies; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great
War 1861-1865; National Park Service: American Civil War; National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors System; Weymouth T.
Jordan and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865; D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; Vernon H. Crow,
Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers; Christopher M. Watford, The Civil
War in North Carolina: Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865. Volume 2: The Mountains; William F. Fox, Regimental
Losses in the American Civil War.
