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7th North Carolina
Infantry Regiment
7th Infantry Regiment was
organized at Camp Mason, near Graham, North Carolina, in August 1861. Its members were recruited in the counties of Iredell,
Alexander, Cabarrus, Rowan, New Hanover, Mecklenburg, Nash, and Wake. The unit took an active part in the fight at New Bern, and then advanced to Virginia. It was assigned to General Branch's, Law's,
and Lane's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. After fighting at Hanover Court House, it participated in the various campaigns of the army from the Seven Days Battles to Cold Harbor, and then was involved in the Siege of Petersburg south and north of the James River.
The regiment sustained 51 casualties at New Bern, 253 out of the 450 engaged during the Seven Days Battles, 69 at Second Manassas and Ox Hill, 52 at Sharpsburg, and 86 at Fredericksburg. There were 37 killed and 127 wounded at Chancellorsville, and of the 291 in action at Gettysburg, thirty-one percent were disabled. It lost 5 killed, 62 wounded, and 37 missing
at the Wilderness, and 11 killed and 28 wounded at Spotsylvania. On February 26, 1865, the unit was ordered to North Carolina where it surrendered
with the Army of Tennessee with 13 officers and 139 men. A detachment surrendered at Appomattox with 1 officer and 18 men. The field officers were Reuben P. Campbell, William
L. Davidson, and Edward G. Haywood; Lieutenant Colonel Junius L. Hill; and Majors Edward D. Hall, James G. Harris, Robert
B. McRae, John M. Turner, and Robert S. Young.
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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 (495 pages: The University of North Carolina Press). Description:
The North Carolina Civil War campaigns and battles were crucial in the grand strategy of the
conflict and involved some of the most famous generals of the war. John Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina, presents
the complete story of military engagements across the Old North State, including the classical pitched battle of Bentonville,
the siege of Fort Fisher, the amphibious campaigns on the coast, and cavalry sweeps such as Stoneman's raid. Continued below...
When the Union had cut off the West and Gulf South, transporting troops
and supplies from the Tar Heel State was critical to General Lee's ability to remain in the field during the closing months
of the war. This dependence upon North Carolina led to Stoneman's cavalry raid and Sherman's March through the state
in 1865, the latter of which brought the horrors of total war and eventual defeat.
Recommended Viewing: The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns. Review: The
Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns is the most successful public-television miniseries in American history. The 11-hour Civil War didn't just captivate a nation,
reteaching to us our history in narrative terms; it actually also invented a new film language taken from its creator. When
people describe documentaries using the "Ken Burns approach," its style is understood: voice-over narrators reading letters
and documents dramatically and stating the writer's name at their conclusion, fresh live footage of places juxtaposed with
still images (photographs, paintings, maps, prints), anecdotal interviews, and romantic musical scores taken from the era
he depicts. Continued below...
The Civil War uses all of these devices to evoke atmosphere and resurrect an event that many knew
only from stale history books. While Burns is a historian, a researcher, and a documentarian, he's above all a gifted storyteller,
and it's his narrative powers that give this chronicle its beauty, overwhelming emotion, and devastating horror. Using the
words of old letters, eloquently read by a variety of celebrities, the stories of historians like Shelby Foote and rare, stained
photos, Burns allows us not only to relearn and finally understand our history, but also to feel and experience it. "Hailed
as a film masterpiece and landmark in historical storytelling." "[S]hould be a requirement for every
student."
Recommended Reading: The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (444
pages) (Louisiana State University Press) (Updated edition: November 2007) Description: The
Life of Johnny Reb does not merely describe the battles and skirmishes fought by the Confederate foot soldier. Rather,
it provides an intimate history of a soldier's daily life--the songs he sang, the foods he ate, the hopes and fears he experienced,
the reasons he fought. Wiley examined countless letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, and official records to construct this
frequently poignant, sometimes humorous account of the life of Johnny Reb. In a new foreword for this updated edition, Civil
War expert James I. Robertson, Jr., explores the exemplary career of Bell Irvin Wiley, who championed the common folk, whom
he saw as ensnared in the great conflict of the 1860s. Continued below...
About Johnny Reb:
"A Civil War classic."--Florida Historical Quarterly
"This book deserves to be on the shelf of every Civil War modeler and enthusiast."--Model
Retailer
"[Wiley] has painted with skill a picture of the life of the Confederate
private. . . . It is a picture that is not only by far the most complete we have ever had but perhaps the best of its kind
we ever shall have."--Saturday Review of Literature
Recommended
Reading: The Fighting Men of the Civil
War, by William C. Davis (Author), Russ A. Pritchard (Author). Description: "A must for any Civil War library!" The sweeping histories of the
War Between the States often overlook the men in whose blood that history was written. This account goes a long way toward
redressing the balance in favor of the men in the ranks. The reader follows the soldiers from enlistment and training to campaigning.
Attention is also given to oft-forgotten groups such as the sailors and black troops. Continued below...
No effort has
been spared to include rare war era photographs and color photos of rare artifacts. Engagingly written by William C. Davis,
the author of more than thirty books on the American Civil War. Award winning author and historian James M. McPherson states:
"The most readable, authoritative, and beautifully designed illustrated history
of the American Civil War."
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; D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; Auburn
University Archives and Manuscripts Department.
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