Civil War

North Carolina Civil War Facts

Below are North Carolina Civil War Facts:      

• While North Carolina was the last of the 11 Southern states to secede, it sent more troops and materials and suffered more losses than any other Southern state
• Around 40,000 North Carolinians were killed over the course of the war.
• Bentonville Battlefield is the largest Civil War battlefield in North Carolina and the site of the only offensive battle to stop General Sherman's march from Atlanta. This was the last major battle fought during the Civil War, covering 6,000 acres of farmland with more than 80,000 troops engaged.
• The largest surrender of Confederate troops occurred at Bennett Place in Durham. With Lee's surrender at Appomattox, this completely disbanded the Confederate troops.
• When Fort Anderson (Brunswick County, Cape Fear River) fell, an Indiana unit took home the garrison flag as a war trophy and presented it to the governor of the state, a close political friend of President Lincoln. The governor invited President Lincoln to change his schedule in Washington at the last minute to attend a ceremony involving this garrison flag. Lincoln made the change and thus avoided a kidnap plan set in motion by John Wilkes Booth. Did Fort Anderson's flag cost Lincoln his life?
• The January 1865 combined land and sea action against Fort Fisher was the largest waterborne assault on a mainland target until the allied invasion of Normandy during WWII.
• There was opposition to secession in several areas of the state. A Peace Party organized conferences, speeches and street riots in the Piedmont. More than 125,000 men from North Carolina served in the Confederate Army. The state also had as many as 15,000 black and white troops in Federal (Union) regiments.
• In Hertford, Perquimans County, a monument to US Colored Troops stands on Academy Green, perhaps the only one in the South.
• The Thomasville City Cemetery may be the only formal burial ground in the United States to have US and Confederate soldiers buried side by side.
• The Quaker Belt consisted of the counties of Guilford, Forsyth, Randolph and Davidson, with pockets in some of the surrounding counties. The Quakers opposed slavery, resisted service in the Confederate Army and participated in the Underground Railroad.
• Whenever possible, the state quartermaster gave contracts to widows or wives of soldiers to sew uniforms. This was an important and new source of revenue for women, most of who had never worked outside the home, to provide income for their families.
• North Carolina was an important supplier of cloth for military purposes during the war because of the large concentration of textile mills. It has been said that North Carolina clad its soldiers better than any other state in the Confederacy.
• Military goods manufactured within the state included flags, buttons, gunpowder, swords, ammunition and leather goods. Pottery was also an important industry, with many potters supplying storage vessels to the military.
• The North Carolina Cherokee Confederates fought the last skirmish in the state at White Sulphur Springs on May 6 and surrendered on May 9, 1865.

North Carolina Civil War Trails
The Civil War Trails trace significant Civil War events across several states with maps and interpretive markers at historic sites. With the help of a federal grant, North Carolina Civil War Trails is the most recent entry in the Civil War Trails project, joining trails through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

Phase I of the North Carolina Trails covers central to eastern North Carolina with features such as Sherman's Carolina Campaign and the war's end. Phase II includes the western portion of the state, including Stoneman's Raid. Visitors can follow directional signs throughout the state showcasing the 105 interpretive markers. Additional information is also available at www.civilwartraveler.com, www.civilwartrails.org and NC-specific 150th anniversary celebration information at http://www.nccivilwar150.com/.

North Carolina Civil War Trails brochures are available at all North Carolina Welcome Centers and Department of Transportation visitor centers, by phone at 1-800-VISIT NC and online at www.visitnc.com/tools_brochure_download.asp.

A Few Facts About the Project

• The public debut of the North Carolina Civil War Trails was March 14, 2005, at the Bentonville Visitor Center, commemorating the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Bentonville and the subsequent Confederate surrender at Bennett Place.
• A re-enactment of the Battle of Bentonville followed on March 19-20, 2005, at the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Johnston County. This event is held every five years with approximately 3,500 re-enactors and 30,000 spectators during a weekend that includes military and civilian encampments, special educational programs and two battles.
• The Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development funded the North Carolina Civil War Trails through a $1.1 million federal Transportation Enhancements grant from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
• Local communities have provided $275,000 in matching funds, a 4-to-1 match.
• The funding provides for development and installation of historical markers to interpret campaign sites and corridors of the Civil War. The North Carolina markers mirror those installed along Civil War Trails in other states to make them easily recognizable as part of the entire trails system. Participating states cross-promote the trails in all states.
• Partners for the project include the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

added: December 17, 2008

updated: February 18, 2011