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James Matchett Taylor was born in 1839 in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, the son of James Taylor and Elizabeth Carver Taylor. While from a farming family of modest means, his father was a recent Irish immigrant who saw the value in education.…

Jarrett Norfleet Harrell , a merchant of Murfreesboro,Hertford County, was appointed captain of the “Hertford Grays,” subsequently Company F, 1st Regiment N.C. State Troops, in May 1861. He was wounded in the breast at the Battle of Chancellorsville…

The Powell brothers of Caswell County John H. and James C. (below) served in Company G (the “Caswell Rifles”), 22nd Regiment N.C. Troops. John (born April 2, 1842) enlisted at Raleigh on July 12, 1861. No muster rolls for Company G survive from the…

At the conclusion of the Chancellorsville campaign in spring of 1863, despite a Confederate victory, the 4th North Carolina State Troops was a shadow of its former self. The 4th brought 327 officers and enlisted men into action on May 1. Just days…

Quentin Derward Busbee of Wake County served as a naval officer during the Mexican War, apparently receiving his commission on April 27, 1846. He was purser on the U.S.S. Germantown, a sloop-of-war built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and commissioned…

This ambrotype of John Pickens Barlow of Caldwell County was made in the photography studio of Esley Hunt of Raleigh, as attested by the presence of distinct chair finials visible behind Barlow’s shoulders. At some time Barlow (or a family member)…

Barney Lane, a carpenter by trade, lived in the “District East of Neuse River” in Johnston County. (His first name also appears as “Barna” and “Barnaba.”) On May 31, 1861, he was appointed captain of the “Lone Star Boys,” a company recruited in the…

Leander Armsur Coe, by occupation a “house carpenter,” was born in Surry County but in 1860 resided with his wife and two small children in the Murphy District of Cherokee County. He was conscripted in Jackson County on April 5, 1863, in Company B…

Company F (the “Hibriten Guards”), 26th Regiment N.C. Troops achieved a terrible fame at the Battle of Gettysburg. During the fight against the Iron Brigade on McPherson’s Ridge on July 1, every member of the company present was shot down:…

Robert Jones of Granville County was conscripted into service and enlisted at Oxford on July 8, 1862, in Company I (the “Granville Stars”), 23rd Regiment N.C. Troops. On the following September 6 he entered a hospital at Danville, Virginia, suffering…