State Troops and Volunteers: A Photographic Record of North Carolina's Civil War Soldiers

This volume differs from previous books of Civil War photographs in two important ways. First, the author, relying principally on compiled military service records and family histories, has assembled a detailed account of each soldier's wartime career. Included, when available, are the soldier's civilian occupation, dates of birth and death, date of enlistment, unit affiliation, and events that affected him while in service. Second, the volume includes a vast array of previously unpublished photographs held by family members of the pictured soldiers. Fully three quarters of the images reproduced in State Troops and Volunteers remain in the hands of descendants of the pictured soldiers.

State Troops and Volunteers opens with rare images of North Carolinians who fought in the Mexican War or served in the antebellum state militia. Men like these formed the leadership core of the state's early Civil War units. Chapter 2 focuses on the men who enthusiastically enlisted during 1861, the first year of the Civil War. Chapters 3 and 4 are topical in nature and examine cavalry and family portraits respectively. Chapter 5, arranged chronologically, pictures North Carolinians who served through the grueling year of 1862. Chapters 2 and 5 also feature brief narratives on the campaigns and battles that the soldiers encountered and recount their experiences, often in the men's own words.

This volume presents a unique blend of important images and illuminating text that offers readers the opportunity to see beyond the faces of Tar Heels who fought, and often died, during the Civil War.