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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



  • Campaigns and Battles

    Barrett, John Gilchrist. Sherman's March through the Carolinas. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1956.
    • Barrett narrates Sherman's destructive march through the Old North State, including actions at Fayetteville, the Battle of Bentonville, foragers, and Bennett Place.

    Bradley, Mark L. Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville. Campbell, Calif.: Savas Woodbury Publishing, 1996.
    • Detailed narrative of the climactic battle of the Carolinas campaign.

    Clark, Walter, ed. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861–'65. 5 vols. Raleigh: E. M. Uzzell; Goldsboro: Nash Brothers, 1901.
    • Capsule histories of North Carolina regiments and military actions.

    Davis, Burke. The Long Surrender. New York: Random House, 1985.
    • Davis narrates the last month of the Confederacy as its cabinet flees south through North Carolina.

    Fonveille, Chris E. Jr. The Wilmington Campaign: Last Rays of Departing Hope. Campbell, Calif.: Savas Woodbury Publishing, 1997.
    • First comprehensive study of the fall of Fort Fisher and the Wilmington campaign.

    Hughes, Nathaniel Cheairs Jr. Bentonville: The Final Battle of Sherman and Johnston. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
    • Another good retelling of the Battle of Bentonville.

    Jordan, Weymouth T. Jr., and Gerald W. Thomas. "Massacre at Plymouth: April 20, 1864." North Carolina Historical Review 72 (April 1995): 125–197.
    • This detailed account of the Plymouth massacre and its aftermath reveals a small number of Confederate atrocities and much confusion and controversy in the aftermath.

    Jordan, Weymouth T. Jr. "‘Drinking Pulverized Snakes and Lizards': Yankees and Rebels in Battle at Gum Swamp." North Carolina Historical Review 71 (July 1993): 266–301.
    • Jordan illuminates two obscure and relatively insignificant skirmishes in Eastern North Carolina.

    Mallison, Fred M. The Civil War on the Outer Banks. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1998.
    • Mallison chronicles the transformation of Outer Banks society by the war.

    Sauers, Richard E. "A Succession of Honorable Victories": The Burnside Expedition in North Carolina. Dayton, Ohio: Morningside House, 1996.
    • Archivist Sauers examines Union general Ambrose E. Burnside's early 1862 push into eastern North Carolina, beginning with his success at Roanoke Island and ending with the capitulation of New Bern.

    Van Noppen, Ina Woestemeyer. Stoneman's Last Raid. Boone, N.C.: The author, 1961.
    • In the closing months of the Civil War, George Stoneman's Federal cavalry swept undisputed through western North Carolina.

    Spencer, Cornelia Phillips. The Last Ninety Days of the War in North Carolina. New York: Watchman Publishing Co., 1866.
    • Spencer's rambling, and sometimes faulty, recounting of the advance of Sherman and the flight of the North Carolina government in May and April 1865 is a Tar Heel classic.


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