North Carolina participated in the Civil War as a confederate state, although state politicians famously did not get along with their confederate superiors in Richmond, Virginia. This alignment meant that North Carolina agreed with the sentiments of the confederate states: that federal legislative proposals by northern states, such as the dissolvement of slavery and increased tariffs on many imports, would disproportionately harm southern economies. North Carolina invested in the war for this reason and remained a confederate state until April 1865.
During the war, North Carolina contributed and lost more soldiers in battle than any other confederate state. Most of North Carolina’s confederate soldiers were white men who either volunteered for service or were conscripted; most of the Black men in North Carolina’s confederate forces are documented to have joined out of coercion or impressment. White men who owned over twenty enslaved people were exempt from military service, although some sent enslaved Black men to serve in their place. Black enslaved individuals were made to support confederate forces through supplementary labor, like cooking and building.
Most of the battles in North Carolina occurred in the eastern half of the state, due to the western mountainous region being sympathetic towards the Union. On April 17, 1865, after the capture of Raleigh by the Union, confederate forces retreated to New Hope Creek near Durham, destroying a bridge after them. There, they engaged in a series of clashes, some of the last fighting in the state. The conflict ended once they heard the news of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender to Union General William T. Sherman, which occurred nearby at the Bennett family farm.