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Annotated Bibliography

Though few battles scarred North Carolina soil, the Tar Heel State's participation in the Civil War has been of great interest to historians. Civil War literature ranges from general reading and campaign narratives to children's books and scholarly texts. The following annotated list includes recent studies and classic readings.

  • Politics / Coming of the War / General

  • Women

  • Home Front

  • Soldier Life

  • Campaigns and Battles

  • Biography

  • Medicine

  • Navy

  • First-Person Accounts

  • Reference

  • Slavery / Emancipation



    • Home Front

    Auman, William Thomas. "Neighbor against Neighbor: The Inner Civil War in the Randolph County Area." North Carolina Historical Review 61 (January 1984): 59–92.
    • Class antagonism, staunch Unionism, and cultural factors engender anti-Confederate sentiments and guerrilla warfare in Randolph County and its environs.

    Auman, William Thomas, and David D. Scarboro. "Heroes of America in Civil War North Carolina." North Carolina Historical Review 58 (October 1981): 327–363.
    • A small group of North Carolinians forms a secret organization to overthrow Confederate authorities and restore the Union.

    Baker, Robin E. "Class Conflict and Political Upheaval: The Transformation of North Carolina Politics during the Civil War." North Carolina Historical Review 70 (April 1992): 148–178.
    • The Civil War disrupted a tenuous antebellum political balance between conservative planters and yeoman farmers and permanently divided North Carolina politics along lines of class and region.

    Carroll, Karen C. "Sterling, Campbell, and Albright: Textbook Publishers, 1861–1865." North Carolina Historical Review 63 (April 1986): 169–198.
    • In addition to the manufacture of textiles and military materials, North Carolinians attempted self-sufficiency in textbook publishing. Publishers used their products to help create a national identity for the Confederacy.

    Durrill, Wayne Keith. War of Another Kind: A Southern Community in the Great Rebellion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
    • Controversial interpretation examines class conflict in Washington County as poor and elite North Carolinians struggled violently over land and power.

    Escott, Paul D., and Jeffrey J. Crow. "The Social Order and Violent Disorder: An Analysis of North Carolina in the Revolution and the Civil War." Journal of Southern History 52 (August 1986): 373–402.
    • Escott and Crow assess the potential for violent class upheaval during the Revolution and the Civil War.

    Escott, Paul D. "Poverty and Governmental Aid for the Poor in Confederate North Carolina." North Carolina Historical Review 61 (October 1984): 462–480.
    • State and Confederate authorities acted too late and with too few resources to prevent widespread destitution on the home front.

    Kenzer, Robert C. Kinship and Neighborhood in a Southern Community: Orange County North Carolina, 1849–1881. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
    • Chapter 4 traces the wartime experiences of Orange County citizens, including those at the front and on the home front.

    McKaughan, Joshua. "‘Few Were the Hearts . . . That Did Not Swell with Devotion': Community and Confederate Service in Rowan County, North Carolina, 1861–1862." North Carolina Historical Review 73 (April 1996): 156–183.
    • Rowan County citizens went to war in waves, first the young and independent, then the older, established farmers.

    Moore, Albert Burton. Conscription and Conflict in the Confederacy. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
    • Classic monograph on the Confederacy's internal problems.

    Thomas, Gerald W. Divided Allegiances: Bertie County during the Civil War. Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, 1996.
    • Thomas traces the fortunes of sharply divided Bertie County, source of hundreds of Union army recruits.

    Van Zant, Jennifer. "Confederate Conscription and the North Carolina Supreme Court." North Carolina Historical Review 72 (January 1995): 54–75.
    • North Carolina Supreme Court justices bordered on obstructionism as they tenaciously clung to strict legal precedent in protection of personal liberties and judicial review.

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