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61st North Carolina Infantry Regiment
61st Infantry Regiment was organized at Wilmington, North Carolina, in August 1862. The men were recruited in
the counties of Sampson, New Hanover, Beaufort, Craven, Chatham, Lenoir, Wilson, Martin, Ashe, Alleghany, and Jones. It was
also assigned to General Clingman's Brigade, Hoke's Division, Army of Northern Virginia. It marched to the Kinston area (Battle of Kinston: 61st North Carolina Infantry Regiment) and engaged in its first action. The unit advanced to Charleston, served on James, Morris, and Sullivan's Islands,
and took an active part in the fight at Battery Wagner. Later it was ordered to Virginia where it fought at Drewy's Bluff and Cold Harbor, and then the regiment endured the hardships of the Petersburg siege south and north of the James River. It returned to North Carolina and was prominent in the Battle of Bentonville. While in the Charleston area, July 10 to September 6, 1863, it lost 6 killed, 35 wounded and 76 missing,
and in September totaled 331 men. Few surrendered with the Army of Tennessee in April 1865. The field officers were Colonels
William S. Davane and James D. Radcliffe, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Mallett, and Major Henry Harding.
Advance to:
Recommended Reading: Clingman's Brigade in the Confederacy. Description: Renowned
historian and author Frances H. Casstevens, Out of the Mouth of Hell: Civil War Prisons and Escapes and Tales from the North And the South, delivers another masterpiece in Clingman's Brigade. "...I felt as though I was part of that brigade;
I could graphically see the horror, the hell... the advance into shot and shell!" On November 11, 1862, Brigadier General
Thomas Lanier Clingman, despite a lack of formal military training, was named commander of four regiments sent to the eastern
counties of North Carolina to prevent Federal troops from
making further inroads into the state. Clingman has been called one of North Carolina’s
most colorful and controversial statesmen, but his military career received little attention from his contemporaries and has
been practically ignored by later historians. Continued Below...
Like Clingman, the brigade, composed of the 8th, 31st, 51st, and 61st regiments
of North Carolina Infantry, has been both praised and condemned for its performance in battle. Clingman's Brigade
is a treasured addition to every Civil War buff's library.
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 General “Stonewall”
Jackson’s wife's sister. 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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