The Whole Country Has Gone Up!

It was late 1863, but the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee were isolated enough that the hardships caused by the war were delayed for some time. But the South lacked manpower at home, and a series of conscription acts started to take a toll on the remaining number of men at home, leaving the women and children alone to farm. Crops and livestock were taken from them by both sides. Nowhere felt the sting of hunger, fear, and rivalries more than in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

Few people knew the Civil War touched the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee so deeply. The hope is to preserve the information for the Regiment's men and their families who still live here. Many great battles and skirmishes were occurring throughout the country. Still, here in the mountains, it was a few hundred men fighting each other here and there. To those soldiers, a bullet, a broken limb, or sickness, was just as real as if it were happening at Shiloh or Gettysburg instead of a dark cove in the mountains. Brother against brother is a term thrown about as freely as dishwater out the cabin door. Still, it is a fact covered in blood and truth in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee mountains. Two regiments of the Federal Army were raised in western North Carolina and Tennessee: the 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry and the 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry. The records reveal at least 1,831 men in both regiments, all raised from October 1863 to August 1865, just 169 men short of two entire regiments.

This book traces the battles the men of the 2nd North Carolina fought. There are rosters for both the 2nd and 3rd Regiments. Rosters for the 2nd come from the actual Regimental Books and contain a wealth of information about each man, including hair and eye color, height, complexation, where he stated he was from and individual remarks. For those that didn't manage to make it home, quite a few had Widow's Pensions applied for against their service. For those that did, they quite often filed for Service Pensions. The indexes for both type pension applications are included.