Company A 37th Regiment

North Carolina A Company 37th Regiment – Tar Heels

The North Carolina 37th regiment was instrumental to many of the battles both in and outside of the state that North Carolina and the confederacy were involved in. It is made up mostly of volunteers from the Ashe County located in the northwest of the state. 206 men in total were apart of the regiment. With about 22 killed and 20 wounded by its end, it was one of the most successful organized fighting regiments of the war, considering the fact it had existed since the beginning in 1861. Fifty, however ended up as POWs in northern union camps, in which thirteen died. It became a legitimate operation in Wilmington, North Carolina at Fort Fischer. In total, both during and before the war, 2,021, many from different counties, states, and countries, had fought in the regiment. All but one (a freed slave) was a white male, who ranged from doctors to mechanics, five foot one to six foot seven, and 15 to 65 in age. Battles in which they fought include New Bern, and northern Virginia, including Richmond. At Gettysburg, the 37th played a major role in the famous Pickett’s Charge, lead by their new general after their previous one had died in combat. Although North Carolina had an army of 115,000 soldiers and Virginia 196,000, North Carolina had about three times as many casualties. The term Tar Heel was a rather derogatory term used by many other states due to the harsh appearance of the soldiers. Their rather blunt form of fighting, which may have increased the number of casualties, also lent to the name.