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21st North Carolina Infantry Regiment
21st Infantry Regiment, formerly the 11th Volunteers, was a twelve company command organized at Danville, Virginia,
in June 1861. Men of this unit were recruited in Davidson, Surry, Forsyth, Stokes, Rockingham, and Guilford counties. It was
assigned to General Trimble's, Hoke's, Godwin's, and W. G. Lewis' Brigade. It fought at First Manassas, Second Manassas, and Jackson's Valley operations. The unit participated in many conflicts of the army from the Seven Days Battles to
Bristoe. It was also involved in the engagements at Plymouth, Drewry's Bluff, and Cold Harbor, marched with Early to the Shenandoah Valley, and saw action around Appomattox. The unit sustained 80 casualties at First Winchester, 13 at Cross Keys and Port Republic, 45 during the Seven Days Battles, 51 at Groveton, 18 at Sharpsburg, and 24 at Fredericksburg. It lost 78 at Chancellorsville, twenty-eight percent of the 436 at Gettysburg, and 52 at Plymouth. In April 1865 it surrendered with 6 officers and 117 men of which 40 were armed. The field officers
were Colonels Saunders Fulton, B. Y. Graves, James M. Leach, Rufus K. Pepper, William S. Rankin, and William L. Scott; and
Majors James F. Beall, Alex. Miller, W. J. Pfohl, and J. M. Richardson.
Recommended
Reading: The Civil War in North Carolina. Description:
Numerous battles and skirmishes were fought in North Carolina
during the Civil War, and the campaigns and battles themselves were crucial in the grand strategy of the conflict and involved
some of the most famous generals of the war. Continued below..
John
Barrett presents the complete story of military engagements across the state, including the classical pitched battle of Bentonville--involving
Generals Joe Johnston and William Sherman--the siege of Fort Fisher,
the amphibious campaigns on the coast, and cavalry sweeps such as General George Stoneman's
Raid. Also available in hardcover: The Civil War in North Carolina .
Recommended
Reading: Shades of Blue and Gray: An Introductory Military History of the Civil War (Hardcover:
281 pages) (University of Missouri
Press). Description: Herman Hattaway
analyzes the Civil War with an emphasis on contemporary advances in military technology and their effects on behavior in the
field. Ulysses Grant was speaking nearly literally when he wrote, "the iron gauntlet must be used more than the silken glove
to destroy the Confederacy." Continued below...
In the end,
Hattaway demonstrates that it was superior iron and steel that won the Union cause. He examines the development and use
of submarines, mines, automatic weapons, balloons, and especially rifles and artillery, which became so accurate that contending
armies took to trench warfare. Battle by battle, Hattaway retraces the grim course of the war, yielding
a helpful introduction to its history, complete with abundant notes and suggested readings.
Recommended
Reading: Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865. Description: The author, Prof. D. H. Hill, Jr., was the son of Lieutenant General Daniel Harvey Hill
(North Carolina produced only two lieutenant generals and
it was the second highest rank in the army) and his mother was the sister to General “Stonewall” Jackson’s
wife. In Confederate Military History Of North Carolina, Hill discusses North
Carolina’s massive task of preparing and mobilizing for the conflict; the many regiments and battalions recruited from
the Old North State; as well as the state's numerous contributions during the war.
During Hill's
Tar
Heel State study, the reader begins with
interesting and thought-provoking statistical data regarding the 125,000 "Old
North State" soldiers that fought
during the course of the war and the 40,000 that perished. Hill advances with the Tar Heels to the first battle at Bethel, through numerous bloody campaigns and battles--including North Carolina’s
contributions at the "High Watermark" at Gettysburg--and concludes with Lee's surrender at
Appomattox.
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; and D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865.
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