Cape Fear Confederates

The 18th North Carolina Regiment has the dubious distinction of firing the volley at Chancellorsville, Virginia, that mortally wounded General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. This tragic accident has overshadowed the regiment’s otherwise valiant service during the Civil War. One of Robert E. Lee’s “fighting regiments,” the 18th North Carolina was a part of two famous Confederate military machines, A.P. Hill’s Light Division and Jackson’s foot cavalry. This revealing history chronicles the regiment’s exploits from its origins through combat with the Army of Northern Virginia at Hanover Court House, the Seven Days’ Battles, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and other battles to its surrender at Appomattox Court House as a battered, much smaller shell of its former self. A roster of those surrendering officers and enlisted men and brief biographical sketches of those who fought with the regiment for most of the war complete this enlightening account.

James M. Gillispie is the division chair of Arts & Sciences at Sampson Community College in Clinton, North Carolina, where he has taught since 1999. He is the author of one other book on the Civil War and has been a featured speaker at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.

James Gillispie

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 248
Bibliographic Info: 13 photos, appendix, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4847-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8686-1
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction and Acknowledgments      1

1. The 18th North Carolina’s Road to War      5
2. Secession and the Formation of the 18th North Carolina      20
3. Seeing the Elephant: Hanover Court House, Gaines’s Mill, and Frayser’s Farm      37
4. Stonewall Salutes the 18th: The Battle of Cedar Mountain      59
5. Battling the “Miscreant” Pope: Second Manassas and Chantilly/Ox Hill      78
6. More Hard Marching: The Maryland Campaign      97
7. A Difficult Way to End a Year: Fall and Winter of 1862      112
8. The Regiment Loses Its Colonel and Its Colors: The Bloody Battle of Chancellorsville      126
9. Difficult Days: The Gettysburg Campaign and the Winter of 1863-1864      149
10. Desperate and Relentless Fighting: Wilderness to Cold Harbor      174
11. Petersburg: The Final Campaign      195

Appendix A: 18th North Carolina Regiment Members Who Surrendered at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865      215
Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of 54 Men Who Served the Longest with the Regiment      217
Chapter Notes      225
Bibliography      237
Index      241