Book Description

The North Carolina Civil War Atlas is a comprehensive full-color study of the impact of the war on the Tar Heel State, incorporating 97 original maps. The only state-level atlas of its kind, the book is a sesquicentennial project of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. The large format (11" x 17") volume highlights every significant military engagement and analyzes the war's social, economic, and political consequences through tables, charts, and text. Manuscripts, election returns, newspapers, census records, and other sources were used to prepare the narrative and compile the tabulated data. From the capture of Hatteras Island and the Burnside Expedition through the fall of Fort Fisher and the Carolinas Campaign of 1865, the state's Civil War history is examined in a new light. Groundbreaking information includes updated casualty statistics, General Sherman's route of march, and the role of U.S. Colored Troops. Historic road networks are based on wartime maps created by engineer Jeremy F. Gilmer matched against the earliest modern road surveys. A variety of primary manuscript map resources were used from the State Archives and the University of North Carolina. Thanks to GIS technology, wartime places and landmarks, identified with their contemporary spellings, are presented in their correct geospatial orientation. Rare photographs complete the package. The North Carolina Civil War Atlas belongs on the shelves of every serious student of the Civil War in general, and the war in North Carolina in particular. This vital reference work will immediately take its rightful place in libraries alongside other North Carolina studies penned by such scholars as John G. Barrett, Mark Bradley, and Chris Fonvielle.