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33rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment
33rd Infantry Regiment completed its organization at the old fair grounds at Raleigh, North Carolina, in September 1861. The men were recruited in the counties of Iredell, Edgecombe,
Cabarrus, Wilkes, Gates, Hyde, Cumberland, Forsyth, and Greene. After fighting at New Bern, the unit relocated to Virginia and engaged at Hanover Court House. It served with Generals Branch and Lane, and participated in the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from the
Seven Days Battles to Cold Harbor. Later it participated in the Siege of Petersburg and was involved in the Appomattox operations. This regiment sustained 75 casualties during the Seven Days Battles,
36 at Cedar Mountain, 8 at Second Manassas, and 41 at Fredericksburg. The unit lost forty-two percent of the 480 engaged at Chancellorsville and twenty percent of the 368 at Gettysburg. The unit reported 4 killed and 19 wounded at Spotsylvania, and 5 killed, 29 wounded, and 4 missing at Jericho Mills. At Appomattox on April 9, 1865, it surrendered 11 officers and 108 men. The
field officers were Colonels Clark M. Avery, Lawrence O. Branch, and Robert V. Cowan; Lieutenant Colonels Robert F. Hoke and
J. H. Saunders; and Majors William G. Lewis, Thomas W. Mayhew, and James A. Weston. (See Lane's Brigade.)
| 33rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment Flag |
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| Courtesy michaelchardy.blogspot.com |
| Civil War North Carolina Battles Map |
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| Civil War North Carolina Battlefields Map |
Recommended Reading: Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865. Description: The author, Prof. D. H. Hill, Jr., was the son of Lieutenant
General Daniel Harvey Hill (North Carolina produced only
two lieutenant generals and it was the second highest rank in the army) and his mother was General “Stonewall”
Jackson’s wife's sister. In Confederate Military History Of North Carolina,
Hill discusses North Carolina’s massive task of preparing and mobilizing for the conflict; the many regiments and battalions
recruited from the Old North State; as well as the state's numerous contributions during the war. Continued below...
During
Hill's Tar
Heel State study, the reader begins with
interesting and thought-provoking statistical data regarding the 125,000 "Old
North State" soldiers that fought
during the course of the war and the 40,000 that perished. Hill advances with the Tar Heels to the first battle at Bethel, through numerous bloody campaigns and battles--including North Carolina’s
contributions at the "High Watermark" at Gettysburg--and concludes with Lee's surrender at
Appomattox.
Recommended
Reading: The Civil War in North Carolina.
Description: Numerous battles and skirmishes
were fought in North Carolina during the Civil War, and
the campaigns and battles themselves were crucial in the grand strategy of the conflict and involved some of the most famous
generals of the war. Continued below...
John Barrett presents the complete story of military engagements across the state, including the classical
pitched battle of Bentonville--involving Generals Joe Johnston and William Sherman--the siege of Fort
Fisher, the amphibious campaigns on the coast, and cavalry sweeps such
as General George Stoneman's Raid. Also available in hardcover: The Civil War in North Carolina .
Recommended
Reading: Touring the Carolina's Civil War
Sites (Touring the Backroads Series). Description: Touring the Carolina's Civil War
Sites helps travelers find the Carolinas' famous Civil War battlefields, forts, and memorials,
as well as the lesser skirmish sites, homes, and towns that also played a significant role in the war. The book's 19 tours,
which cover the 'entire Carolinas,' combine riveting history with clear, concise directions and maps, creating a book that
is as fascinating to the armchair reader as it is to the person interested in heritage travel. Below are some examples from
this outstanding book:
1. Fort Fisher - the largest sea fort in the war that protected the
vital town of Wilmington N.C., and the blockade runners so important for supplying Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
2. Charleston
- where the whole shootin' match started.
3. Bentonville - the last large scale battle of the war.
4. Outer Banks - early Union victories here were vital to capturing many parts of Eastern North Carolina from which the
Union could launch several offensives.
5. Sherman's
March - the destruction of certain towns in both Carolinas (particularly South Carolina)
further weakened the South's will to continue the struggle.
I also enjoyed reading about the locations of various gravesites
of Confederate generals and their Civil War service. Indeed, if not for this book, this native North Carolinian and long-time
Civil War buff may never have learned of, and visited, the locations of some of the lesser-known sites other than those mentioned
above.
Johnson's writing style is smooth--without being overly simplistic--and contains several anecdotes (some humorous
ones too) of the interesting events which took place during the Civil War years. Highly recommended!
Recommended Viewing: The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns. Review: The
Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns is the most successful public-television miniseries in American history. The 11-hour Civil War didn't just captivate a nation,
reteaching to us our history in narrative terms; it actually also invented a new film language taken from its creator. When
people describe documentaries using the "Ken Burns approach," its style is understood: voice-over narrators reading letters
and documents dramatically and stating the writer's name at their conclusion, fresh live footage of places juxtaposed with
still images (photographs, paintings, maps, prints), anecdotal interviews, and romantic musical scores taken from the era
he depicts. Continued below...
The Civil War uses all of these devices to evoke atmosphere and resurrect an event that many knew
only from stale history books. While Burns is a historian, a researcher, and a documentarian, he's above all a gifted storyteller,
and it's his narrative powers that give this chronicle its beauty, overwhelming emotion, and devastating horror. Using the
words of old letters, eloquently read by a variety of celebrities, the stories of historians like Shelby Foote and rare, stained
photos, Burns allows us not only to relearn and finally understand our history, but also to feel and experience it. "Hailed
as a film masterpiece and landmark in historical storytelling." "[S]hould be a requirement for every
student."
Recommended Reading: The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (444
pages) (Louisiana State University Press) (Updated edition: November 2007) Description: The
Life of Johnny Reb does not merely describe the battles and skirmishes fought by the Confederate foot soldier. Rather,
it provides an intimate history of a soldier's daily life--the songs he sang, the foods he ate, the hopes and fears he experienced,
the reasons he fought. Wiley examined countless letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, and official records to construct this
frequently poignant, sometimes humorous account of the life of Johnny Reb. In a new foreword for this updated edition, Civil
War expert James I. Robertson, Jr., explores the exemplary career of Bell Irvin Wiley, who championed the common folk, whom
he saw as ensnared in the great conflict of the 1860s. Continued below...
About Johnny Reb:
"A Civil War classic."--Florida Historical Quarterly
"This book deserves to be on the shelf of every Civil War modeler and enthusiast."--Model
Retailer
"[Wiley] has painted with skill a picture of the life of the Confederate
private. . . . It is a picture that is not only by far the most complete we have ever had but perhaps the best of its kind
we ever shall have."--Saturday Review of Literature
Sources: Official Records of the Union
and Confederate Armies; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War
1861-1865; National Park Service: American Civil War; National Park Service: Soldiers and Sailors System; Weymouth T. Jordan
and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865; and D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina:
North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; North Carolina Standard (Raleigh) June 4, 1862; Auburn University Department of
Archives and Manuscripts; michaelchardy.blogspot.com.
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