ISBN-10: 0786415436 | ISBN-13: 978-0786415434 | Publication Date: July 2003
North Carolina contributed more of her sons to the Confederate cause than any other state. The 37th North Carolina, made up of men from the western part of the state, served in famous battles like Chancellorsville and Gettysburg as well as in lesser known engagements like Hanover Courthouse and New Bern.
This is the account of the unit’s four years’ service, told largely in the soldiers’ own words. Drawn from letters, diaries, and postwar articles and interviews, this history of the 37th North Carolina follows the unit from its organization in November 1861 until its surrender at Appomattox. The book includes photographs of the key players in the 37th’s story as well as maps illustrating the unit’s position at several engagements. Appendices include a complete roster of the unit and a listing of individuals buried in large sites such as prison cemeteries. A bibliography and index are also included.
Civil War historian Michael C. Hardy, a writer for such publications as North & South and American Civil War, is a lecturer and program presenter on the role of Appalachia in the Civil War. He lives in western North Carolina. --North Carolina Historical Review
"Well-researched" --The Civil War News
"Another solid modern unit history of North Carolinians in the eastern campaigns...his concluding chapter brings the story of the regiment's memorialization down to the present" --The Civil War Courier--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Civil War historian Michael C. Hardy has written for such publications as North & South and America’s Civil War. He frequently presents lectures and interpretive programs on Appalachia’s role in the Civil War. He lives in western North Carolina.
Mention North Carolina's role during the Civil War, and at some point, the conversation will include the name of award-winning author and historian Michael C. Hardy. Michael's large body of work on the Old North State and the War Between the States includes numerous books, articles, and blog posts on topics ranging from specific battles, regiments, and personalities, to the experiences of North Carolinians before, during and after the war.
History has been a life-long passion for Michael. He participated in his first Civil War re-enactment at the age of ten in 1982. Since then, he has participated in hundreds of events in locations ranging from south Florida to Pennsylvania. Some of the highlights include the 125th Gettysburg; the 130th Murfreesboro; the 135th Antietam; the 135th Gettysburg, which was the largest re-enactment ever held; the 135th Nashville; the 135th Chickamauga; and the 140th Manassas. Michael has served in nearly every position imaginable, from medical steward, to color sergeant, to colonel of an infantry battalion. He has also volunteered as an interpreter at local museums and state and national parks, and has presented hundreds of programs for schools, libraries, scout troops, and churches. Michael has spent a vast amount of time researching the day-to-day lives of mid-nineteenth-century Americans in an effort to effectively communicate the experiences of the past to people today.
Michael's efforts to preserve, document, and teach history have grown far beyond re-enacting and living history. He is a serious reader and book collector. His personal library contains hundreds of books on nineteenth-century American history. Two specific sections of the collection are nearly exhaustive, featuring virtually every text on Robert E. Lee and just about every book on North Carolina and the Civil War.
In the mid-1990s, Michael began his professional writing career; his first published piece was a biography on Brig. Gen. Collett Leventhorpe in North and South Magazine. Since then, Michael has continued to research and write about battles, people, and places. He has a particular passion for regimentals. So far, his regimentals have focused on two groups with very different histories and wartime experiences: the Thirty-seventh North Carolina Troops was a Tar Heel regiment that fought in some of the most storied battles of the war's Eastern Theater and lost more men to death than any other Tar heel regiment, while the Fifty-eighth north Carolina Troops, the largest infantry regiment from North Carolina, fought in the Western Theater and was plagued by record numbers of desertions. Michael has also devoted his energies to crafting much-needed histories of battles, such as Hanover Court House (1862) and the Brooksville-Bayport Raid (1864). The subject of remembrance is one dear to Michael's heart, and has been showcased in Remembering North Carolina's Confederates, as well as in his 2011 books North Carolina Remembers Gettysburg and North Carolina in the Civil War. In addition to his books, he has continued to contribute focused and meticulously researched articles to national publications such as America's Civil War and Gettysburg Magazine.
Since 1995, Michael has lived in the mountains of western North Carolina, an ideal location for his work, as it places him about five hours from either Atlanta, the heart of the Western Theater of the War, or Richmond, Virginia, the heart of the Eastern Theater of the War. Plus, western North Carolina, where some of Michael's ancestors first settled in the 1770s, has plenty of its own stories, some of which Michael has been privileged to tell in books and articles. Thanks to the magic of technology, Michael attended the University of Alabama, majoring in Community Studies with a focus on Civil War history.
Michael is a six-time winner of the Willie Parker Peace History Book Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians. In 2009 he was presented the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Superior Achievement Award from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, both for his work in preserving Confederate history. In October 2010, Michael was honored as the North Carolina Historian of the Year by the North Carolina Society of Historians.
Michael consults with a number other authors and organizations in their work, answering a legion of emails from researchers ranging from amateur genealogists to scholars at major museums, libraries, and educational institutions. He has assisted several museums with displays about the Civil War, and at times even loans articles from his own collection for display. Michael has also worked as a historical consultant for several well-known fiction writers, including New York Times best-seller Sharyn McCrumb, answering questions about the Civil War or western North Carolina. Through his very popular North Carolina and the Civil War blog, Michael shares his research and insights and invites conversation from readers.
Michael regularly volunteers with a number of local historical societies and associations. He is a member of numerous national organizations, like the Civil War Trust, The Society of Civil War Historians, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. He lives with his wife Elizabeth, an English professor at Mayland Community College and acclaimed literary scholar, their wonderful son Nathaniel (born in April 2001), and their beautiful daughter Isabella (born in December 2006) high up on the side of a mountain. To learn more about Michael, visit www.michaelchardy.com.
This review is from: The Thirty-seventh North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Northern Virginia (Hardcover)
Michael Hardy has written a detailed and fascinating account of the 37th North Carolina in the Civil War. It is especially good in its use of first-hand sources - letters, diaries, etc. - of the soldiers who served in the unit. Formed in the late summer of 1861, the 37th participated in most of the major campaigns in the eastern theatre, beginning at New Bern and continuing through Gaines Mills, Second Manassas, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Petersburg to Appomattox. Hardy traces the whereabouts and actions of the unit in rich detail, sometimes on a day-to-day basis, which is especially useful while they were on the march. In addition to their battlefield actions, Hardy provides a complete roster of the 37th by company and a list of all the unit's courts-martial during the war. The book is an excellent history of the 37th and a useful reference source as well. And Hardy's generous use of the soldiers' words themselves make for very interesting reading. The book is another excellent addition to the many regimental histories published by McFarland in the last half-dozen years or so.
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This review is from: The Thirty-seventh North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Northern Virginia (Hardcover)
Michael Hardy is the consummate writer- he does his research-in depth, collects his material-much of it first-hand, then writes a book that is a cross between a textbook and a biography. I,too, am descended from men who were in the 37th NC of whom I knew nothing before I read this book. Now I do.
Even if you are not related,this book is excellent reading in order to understand how and why young men from rural western NC were willing to risk it all for a cause they did not all support. This is a tremendous book and a great read.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA wonderful book!, August 13, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: The Thirty-seventh North Carolina Troops: Tar Heels in the Army of Northern Virginia (Hardcover)
My husband and I are reading this book at present. His great-great-grandfather was in the 37th NC Infantry of the CSA, and this book helps bring to life what these soldiers endured. From the beginning of the War to the end, anyone who reads this account will be moved. The book is very well-researched and is very detailed. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the experience of a Confederate soldier.
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