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53rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment
53rd Infantry Regiment completed its organization in April 1862 at Camp Mangum, near Raleigh, North Carolina. The men were recruited in the following
counties: Guilford, Mecklenburg, Chatham, Surry, Alamance, Stokes, Union, and Wilkes. It served in the Department of North
Carolina and then was assigned to General Daniel's and Grimes' Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. The 53rd fought in many conflicts from Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania to Cold Harbor. It participated in all the battles in the Shenandoah Valley Campaigns, and was active in the Appomattox Campaign. It lost thirty-six percent of the 322 engaged at Gettysburg, had 1 wounded at Bristoe Station and 2 killed at Mine Run. The unit surrendered 6 officers and 81 men. Its commanders were Colonels James T. Morehead and William
A. Owens, and Majors James J. Iredell and John W. Rierson.
Advance to:
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. Continued below...
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.
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: Mountain
Myth: Unionism in Western North Carolina (Hardcover), by Terrell T. Garren. Description: Civil
War historian Terrell T. Garren and author of acclaimed The Secret of War: A Dramatic History of Civil War Crime in Western North Carolina , delivers another masterpiece and challenges previous 'historical assumptions' regarding Unionism in Western North
Carolina. Garren says that readers of his new book "may be surprised to learn that Western North Carolina citizens of that
day were as much or more dedicated to the Confederate cause than the people of any other area in the entire South." It is
RATED 5 STARS, the highest rating, by thomaslegion.net
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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