Carried Into War
A Soldier's Life
Realities of War
The Home Front
Facing the Grim Reaper
Breaking the Blockade
The Last Campaigns
An Uncertain Future
Acknowledgments
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Hopeful of Victory
The Peace Movement
Desperate for Victory
The high hopes of the spring of 1864 waned with reversals on the battlefield in the summer, fall, and winter. A noose slowly tightened around the neck of the Confederate armies. Both soldiers and civilians knew that victory would not come in 1864.
Confederate Twilight
We must fight this fight out-there must be no turning back now-too much precious blood has been shed.
—Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur to his wife, September 17, 1864
Dodson Ramseur's statement reflected the steadfast determination of the Tar Heel troops in Virginia to keep fighting in the face of overwhelming odds against them. Part of the army fought outside Petersburg; Ramseur and others fought in the Shenandoah Valley. Two days after Ramseur wrote these words, the Confederate army in the valley was defeated near Winchester. Through the end of September and into October 1864, combat there left the Confederate troops beaten and demoralized. Ramseur was mortally wounded and captured on October 19 while desperately trying to rally his troops in the Battle of Cedar Creek. He died the following day. But not all the reverses came in Virginia. The year 1864 ended with the reelection of President Abraham Lincoln, the fall of Atlanta and Savannah in Georgia, and devastating defeats in the western theater of war at the Battles of Franklin and Nashville in Tennessee.
Thomas L. Clingman
Brigadier General Thomas L. Clingman was a United States congressman and senator before the war. Clingman sustained a slight wound to the forehead when an artillery shell fragment tore away the front brim of this hat during the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia, on May 31, 1864. Later, Clingman was wounded again in fighting along the Weldon Railroad, which ended his active military service.
Benjamin S. Skinner
Captain Benjamin S. Skinner of Perquimans County volunteered in 1861. He was wounded at Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862, returned to service, and was promoted to captain in 1863. Skinner survived the heavy fighting in the spring of 1864 but was killed at the Battle of Reams's Station, south of Petersburg, on August 25.
John R. Lane
Colonel John R. Lane volunteered from Chatham County in 1861. He was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, in the Battle of the Wilderness, and again in the summer of 1864. On August 25, 1864, Lane was severely wounded in the chest by a shell fragment at the Battle of Reams's Station. Still suffering from his wounds, he returned to his regiment in November.
Bryan Grimes
Major General Bryan Grimes, from Pitt County, enlisted in 1861. He fought in many battles and had several horses shot out from under him but escaped death and serious injury. Grimes assumed division command upon the death of Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur in October 1864. Grimes was promoted to major general in February 1865 and fought until the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse the following April.
William Henry Asbury Speer
William Henry Asbury Speer, a native of Yadkin County, enlisted in August 1861. He joined the Twenty-eighth Regiment North Carolina Troops, was captured in May 1862, and remained a prisoner of war until exchanged in September. Though Speer had serious misgivings about the war, he continued to serve for the next two years. He was promoted to colonel in July 1864. Colonel Speer was mortally wounded in the head by a shell fragment at the Battle of Reams's Station on August 25, 1864.
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