The 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was composed of ten companies that came from various counties across North Carolina and Virginia. It is famous for being the regiment with the largest number of casualties on either side during the war.
The state of North Carolina seceded from the Union on May 20, 1861, and subsequently joined the Confederate States of America. [3] After seceding, then North Carolina Adjutant General John Hoke called for 30,000 troops to be recruited to support the Confederacy in the war. [3] Congressman Zebulon Baird Vance initially supported the Union but after hearing of the attacks on Fort Sumter, he then advocated for the Confederacy. [3] In local towns people then tried to form companies who would then enter into state service. [3] To encourage enlistment, the state offered a $10 bounty for any man who enlisted into a company. The soldiers in each of the ten companies that made up the 26th North Carolina came primarily from one county, while a few usually came from neighboring counties. [3]
The first company to form as a part of the 26th North Carolina was from Moore County in May 1861. [3] Nine more companies followed suit with soldiers coming from the following counties in North Carolina: Ashe, Union, Wilkes, Wake, Chatham, Caldwell, and Anson. One company also contained soldiers from Grayson County in Virginia. Each of the ten companies had their own nickname that they chose.
The respective companies, the men included are listed as their final ranks.
The regiment was raised in 1861 from central and western North Carolina, with Zebulon B. Vance as its first colonel. Vance was elected Governor of North Carolina in 1862 and command of the unit passed to 20-year-old Col. Henry King Burgwyn, Jr. The 26th spent the next year defending the North Carolina coast, seeing its first action at New Bern, North Carolina. It then went north and fought in the Seven Days Battles before returning to the North Carolina coast. [4]
In 1863, it marched northwards and became attached to General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia where they were given the distinction of being not only the largest, but the best trained regiment present.[ citation needed ] Gen.Pettigrew's brigade was attached to the 3rd Corps led by A.P. Hill.
From there the 26th North Carolina marched ever northward in Maryland and later into Pennsylvania. On July 1, 1863, the 26th North Carolina became engaged in the Battle of Gettysburg, fighting at McPherson's Ridge. The regiment suffered heavy casualties during a fight with the "Iron Brigade"'s 24th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment (which suffered the second most casualties of any Union regiment at Gettysburg—only the 1st Minnesota suffered more), losing Burgwyn, the lieutenant colonel, and 588 men out of a strength of 800, but forced the 24th into a retreat. Out of 800 men taken into battle, it had 86 men killed and 502 wounded. Another 120-136 soldiers would be lost in the tragic Pickett's Charge on July 3. [5] A marker stands near where the regiment fought and bled.
The second day of Gettysburg was resting near McPherson's Ridge. Pettrigrew and the surviving officers worked to bring men not severely wounded back into the ranks. [6] On the last day of the battle, the 26th were chosen to take part in the Pettigrew/Pickett's Charge on Cemetery Ridge, it was second from the left in the brigade's line. The 26th North Carolina suffered artillery fire and then small arms fire as it advanced. The regiment lost an additional 120 men, and the regimental flag was captured. The regiment lost more men than any other regiment, Union or Confederate, during the battle, including the entire Company F. There is some controversy over whether the Carolinians penetrated the federal line, but they were among the last troops repelled. [7]
Later in the war, the regiment fought during the Overland Campaign and Siege of Petersburg, and remained in the Army of Northern Virginia until its surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. Maj, later LTC, John Jones led the regiment at the Battle of Bristoe Station. LTC John Randolph Lane was promoted to Col while recovering from his Gettysburg wound. He took charge of the regiment in late 1863. Lane was wounded again in the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. LTC Jones was mortally wounded a day later. [8] Lane was wounded twice more during the war and was sent home to recover in the spring of 1865. Consequently, he was absent from the final campaign of the Army of Northern Virginia. [9]
Alfred Moore Scales was a North Carolina state legislator, Confederate general in the American Civil War, and the 45th Governor of North Carolina from 1885 to 1889.
James Johnston Pettigrew was an American author, lawyer, and soldier. He served in the army of the Confederate States of America, fighting in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and played a prominent role in the Battle of Gettysburg. Despite starting the Gettysburg Campaign commanding a brigade, Pettigrew took over command of his division after the division's original commander, Henry Heth, was wounded. In this role, Pettigrew was one of three division commanders in the disastrous assault known as Pickett's Charge on the final day of Gettysburg. He was wounded, in the right hand, during the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge on July 3, 1863, and was later mortally wounded during the Union Confederate rearguard action while the Confederates retreated to Virginia near Falling Waters, Virginia, on July 14, dying several days thereafter on July 17, 1863.
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Henry King Burgwyn, Jr. was a Confederate colonel in the American Civil War who was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.
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