Browse Items (76 total)

Recounts the the role of the Southern Appalachian's in the years leading up to, during, and following the Civil War. Inscoe understands that the Appalachians are a unique place and often times their thoughts and ideas differed from many other…

Mountain Unionists are brutally murdered in the Shelton Laurell area of the NOrth Carolina Mountains. Among the victims was a 13 year old boy. The Unionists were accused of raiding a nearby town and stealing basic necessities as well as raiding a…

A major problem that faced both armies during the Civil war was desertion. As the conflict dragged on into a protracted war of attrition, the loss of men through absenteeism struck hardest at the South. Before the end of 1861 it had become a problem…

Drawing from the experiences of 3,126 enlisted men from North Carolina who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, the author focuses on the determinants of desertion. Men deserted because their identity as Southerners was eroded by an emergent…

“Fort Fisher was the strongest fort in the South,” proclaimed the New York Tribune. “Now for the first time is a really formidable earthwork carried by a direct assault, and in a military view, therefore, the storming of Fort Fisher…

Several scholars have determined that western North Carolina men, like Sergeant Wyatt, deserted in larger numbers than their compatriots across the state did. Richard Reid’s 1981 study found a desertion rate of 16 percent for western North…

That the Confederate soldier has no superior in the annals of war is an article of the American Creed. His accomplishments against overwhelming odds, through four years of heroic suffering, are his monument. Magnificent in his forbearance and his…

At the Beginning of the Civil War, the Confederate States of America could hardly have foreseen the enormous problem that desertion in its army would have become. Amid the initial enthusiasm following the outbreak of the conflict, the rush of…

TEXAS AND WAR WITH MEXICO

Throughout the 1820s, Americans settled in the vast territory of Texas, often with land grants from the Mexican government. However, their numbers soon alarmed the authorities, who prohibited further immigration in 1830.…

As late as 1830, southern whites still sometimes debated whether slavery should, or could, be eliminated. The state of Virginia nearly abolished slavery in 1836, after the terror of Nat Turner’s Rebellion. In North Carolina, people wondered…