Edward Wild, the Union general who headed the all-black African Brigade in the Civil War, was one of the most controversial figures of the 19th century. The man was neither understood nor appreciated by military or civilian, black or white, Northerner or Southerner. Wild was placed in charge of the United States Colored Troops and told to free slaves and gain recruits. He freed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of slaves and settled them safely on Roanoke Island. He also did some inexplicable things, including taking women as hostages and ordering a great deal of property destruction.

Located in the western piedmont of North Carolina, Yadkin County was hardly a hotbed of rebellion at the start of the Civil War. Many of the 1,200 men from Yadkin who served in the Confederate Army did so with distinction, but a number deserted. Some of these holed up in the Bond School House, and when the militia attempted to arrest them, four were killed and several others were wounded. This is a comprehensive accounting of how the county responded to the Civil War and the effect it had on Yadkins citizens, civilian and military alike.

In June 1862, James J. Archer was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by Robert E. Lee. Serving with distinction in prominent battles such as those at Bull Run, Chancellorsville and Harpers Ferry, this lawyer-turned-general earned not only the respect of his superiors but the esteem and admiration of his men. Imprisoned first at Fort Delaware and then at Johnson's Island, Archer was one of the "First Fifty" (and as it turned out only) officers to be part of a Confederate/Union prisoner exchange. Upon returning to the Confederacy, Archer resumed command and served until his death from...

Captain George W. Alexander was a controversial figure in Richmond during the Civil War, honored as a hero and condemned as a cruel prison superintendent. He was appointed Provost Marshal and put in charge of Castle Thunder in 1862, after escaping imprisonment at Fort McHenry. At his Confederate prison in Richmond, he oversaw prisoners of all types, including Confederates, women, slaves, Federal deserters, and spies. This biography traces Alexander's life from the U.S. Navy voyage with Commodore Perry to Japan, hiding in Canada after Lee's surrender, editorship of Washington DC's Sunday...

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 inroads into the state. This work determines the effect Clingman's Brigade had on various battles.

Early in the Civil War, prisons were adequate to hold the numbers of prisoners. As the war continued and the number of prisoners increased, so did the number of facilities. Some 150 locations were utilized to hold soldiers captured on the battlefield as well as political prisoners suspected of disloyalty. Facilities can be classified in six categories: 1) existing jails or prisons, 2) coastal fortifications, 3) converted commercial buildings, 4) barracks enclosed by a high fence, 5) cloisters of tents enclosed by a high fence and 6) barren stockades. Many prisoners, both Confederate and...

In April 1861, public opinion in North Carolina was divided between Union and secession supporters. It was only after President Lincoln issued his call to arms to subdue the rebel state of South Carolina that North Carolina seceded, primarily in protest of the order to fight her sister state.

Beginning with a look at the prevailing atmosphere in North Carolina in the spring of 1861, this volume provides an in-depth history of one Confederate infantry regiment, the 28th North Carolina, which was comprised primarily of units from the central and southwestern parts of the state. It...