NF The Fight for the Old North State: The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864

Non-Fiction
Mary Phinney, Morehead City, & The Fight for the Old North State

A lead character on PBS's Mercy Street, nurse Phinney left Virginia & served at Morehead City, NC during the fighting there in 1864.
More at the blog post: http://hamptonnewsome.blogspot.com/2019/08/mary-phinney-morehead-city-and-fight.html
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New review of The Fight for the Old North State in the November 2019 issue of America's Civil War.

Here's an excerpt:

"... meticulously researched and confidently written new monograph .... [Newsome] places the campaign's military component within a larger political and social context, and he provides astute analytical insights in both his own words and those of contemporaries." - Gordon Berg in America's Civil War

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I have the book and read it; Covered With Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg by Rod Gragg. It was the largest regiment in the Confederate Army with a little over 800 men and officers with the Colonel Henry Burgwyn Jr known as "The Boy Colonel", for he was the youngest Colonel in the Confederate Army.

They were part of Heth's division of Hill's Corps who attacked two regiments from the Iron Brigade on the 1st day. Their charge resulted in suffering 577 casualties but beat off the Federal troops off the field. Colonel Burgwyn Jr was mortally wounded, the colors fell more times than any other regiment North or South in a single battle in the entire war. In one company, all but one man were casualties.

Brigadier General Pettigrew galloped and shouted to them that they had covered themselves with glory!

The second day of the battle they rested but took part of Pickett's Charge on the 3rd day in Pettigrew's Division. They were among the few who made it over the stonewall penetrating further than any other Confederate regiments. After the charge failed, they withdrew back to the Confederate lines and at the roll call there were only 80 men left when the battle of Gettysburg was over.
 
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Many thanks to Gerry Prokopowicz for having me on the CivilWarTalk Radio podcast last week to discuss my book, The Fight For the Old North State:The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864 (Univ. Press of Kansas, 2019). We covered a lot of ground - New Bern, Plymouth, the ironclad Albemarle, etc.

You can list to the podcast here:
or here:

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The Fight for the Old North State was selected one of Civil War Monitor magazine's Best Civil War Books of 2019. The full list of best books will appear in the forthcoming Winter '19 issue, which goes on sale in early December.

Congratulations, Hampton! That's terrific news.
 
Congratulations on the award. I've only skimmed the book so far but it looks like an excellent addition to the library - it meets or even exceeds the very high standard set by Richmond Must Fall (2013) . Anybody interested in the War in NC needs at a minimum this one and the Sauers book on the Burnside expedition (pricey and hard to find).
 
Congratulations on the award. I've only skimmed the book so far but it looks like an excellent addition to the library - it meets or even exceeds the very high standard set by Richmond Must Fall (2013) . Anybody interested in the War in NC needs at a minimum this one and the Sauers book on the Burnside expedition (pricey and hard to find).
Thanks so much! And, I agree that Sauers' book is great (The Burnside Expedition in North Carolina). I've heard rumors that it may get a reprint at some point - but I haven't seen anything concrete. Sauers' covers 1863. The Fight For the Old North State covers 1864 (Plymouth, etc.). And there are several great titles about 1865 (Bradley, Sokolosky, Smith, etc). Now, hopefully, someone will write a detailed monograph about the late-1862/early-1863 operations (Foster's Kinston raid, D.H. Hill's seige of Washington, etc.).
 
The Fight For the Old North State was picked as the Book of the Year at the Civil War Books and Authors. Andrew Wagenhoffer, who publishes that excellent blog, reviewed the book earlier this year.

That is one heck of an accomplishment. Congratulations sir.
A fair condolence to all the authors having to wait and try again.
Lubliner.
 
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