Union 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment

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3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment, U.S.
A.K.A. Union 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment; 3rd North Carolina (Federal) Mounted Infantry Regiment; 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment, U.S.A.; 3rd North Carolina Mounted, United States; and Kirk's Raiders.

ORGANIZED: Knoxville, Tenn., June 1864. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Army Corps, Dept. of Ohio, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, District East Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to August 1865.

SERVICE: Scout and patrol duty in proximity of Knoxville, Tenn., and in East Tennessee till December 1864. Scout from Morristown, Tenn., into North Carolina June 13-July 15, 1864. Camp Vance on June 28. Russellville, Tenn. on October 28. Big Pigeon River on November 5-6. Moved to Paint Rock on December 7. Expedition into Western North Carolina March 21-April 25, 1865. Moved to Boone, N.C., April 6, and to Asheville, N.C., April 27-30. Duty in North Carolina and East Tennessee till August 1865. Mustered out August 8, 1865.
 
"Swarms of [North Carolina] men liable to conscription are gone to the tories or to the Yankees." Brigadier General J. W. McElroy, First Brigade North Carolina Home Guard, April 12, 1864

3rdnorthcarolinamountedinfantryregimentphoto.jpg
Courtesy Michael C. Hardy

OVERVIEW: The Union Army recruited two mounted infantry regiments within North Carolina, and both units were principally raised from Western North Carolina counties: 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment and 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment. The men that comprised the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry were recruited from Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Confederate deserters also formed a fraction of this unit. Recruitment of these regiments epitomized the "Brother's War" and the men serving in the two Union mounted infantry regiments were commonly referred to as Home Yankees.

 

Photograph (right): Lt. David Cook, Company E, 3rd NC Mounted Infantry, USA. Author and historian Michael C. Hardy (michaelchardy.blogspot.com) states: "This might be the same David Cook who served as a private in Company B, 37th North Carolina Troops." Lt. David Cook is interred at the National Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee.

 

Union Major General George Stoneman's command as it concerns Western North Carolina in 1865: Second North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment, Lieut. Colonel William C. Bartlett; Third North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment, Colonel George W. Kirk; First Brigade, Commanding Colonel Chauncey G. Hawley; Fourth Division, Department of the Cumberland, Brig. General Davis Tillson; District of East Tennessee, Major General George Stoneman (to view entire Union District of East Tennessee, including 1st and 2nd Brigades, and Brig. Gen. Gillem's Cavalry Division, see O.R., 1, 49, pt. II, pp. 538-539*).

*Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies

 

Sources: National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors System; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; North Carolina Museum of History.

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3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment Union, 3rd North Carolina Federal Mounted Infantry Army, Colonel George W. Kirk Commander Third North Carolina Mounted Infantry History, Kirk’s Raiders Western North Carolina, American Civil War Regiments History Details Summary
North Carolina American Civil War, Battles and Battlefields Information Info, North Carolina and the American Civil War History during the Civil War

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