North Carolina in the American Civil War The state of North Carolina provided an important source of soldiers , supplies , and war materiel to the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War . The city of Wilmington was one of the leading ports of the Confederacy , providing a vital lifeline of trade with the United Kingdom and other countries , especially after the Union blockade choked off most other Confederate ports . Large supplies of weapons , ammunition , accoutrements , and military supplies flowed from Wilmington throughout the South . Troops from North Carolina played a major role in dozens of major battles , including the Battle of Gettysburg , where Tar Heels were prominent in Pickett ' s Charge . One of the last remaining major Confederate armies , that of Joseph E . Johnston , surrendered near Bennett Place in North Carolina after the Carolinas Campaign . Early war years . North Carolina was a picture of contrasts . In the Coastal Plain , it was a plantation state with a long history of slavery . However , there were no plantations and few slaves in the mountainous western part of the state . These differing perspectives show in the fraught election of 1860 and its aftermath . North Carolina ' s electoral votes went to Southern Democrat John C . Breckinridge , an adamant supporter of slavery who hoped to extend the " peculiar institution " to the United States ' western territories , rather than to the Constitutional Union candidate , John Bell , who carried much of the upper South . Yet North Carolina ( in marked contrast to most of the states that Breckinridge carried ) was reluctant to secede from the Union when it became clear that Republican Abraham Lincoln had won the presidential election . In fact , North Carolina did not secede until May 20 , 1861 , after the fall of Fort Sumter and the secession of the Upper South ' s bellwether , Virginia . Some North Carolinians , especially yeoman farmers who owned few or no slaves , felt ambivalently about the Confederacy ; draft - dodging , desertion , and tax evasion were common during the Civil War years , especially in the Union - friendly western part of the state . Central and Eastern white North Carolinians were more enthusiastic about the Confederate cause ; North Carolina contributed more troops to the Confederacy than any other state . Initially , the policy of the Confederate government was to blockade cotton shipments to Europe in hope of forcing them to recognize the Confederacy ' s independence to resume trade . The plan failed , and furthermore the Union ' s naval blockade of Southern ports drastically shrunk North Carolina ' s international commerce via shipping . Internally , the Confederacy had far fewer railroads than the Union . The breakdown of the Confederate transportation system took a heavy toll on North Carolina residents , as did the runaway inflation of the war years . In the spring of 1863 , there were food riots in North Carolina ( as well as Georgia ) . Politics . Henry Toole Clark served as the state ’ s governor from July 1861 to September 1862 . Clark founded a Confederate prison in North Carolina , set up European purchasing connections , and built a successful gunpowder mill . His successor Zebulon Vance further increased state assistance for the soldiers in the field . As the war went on , William Woods Holden became a quiet critic of the Confederate government , and a leader of the North Carolina peace movement . In 1864 , he was the unsuccessful " peace candidate " against incumbent Governor Vance . Military campaigns in North Carolina . From September 1861 until July 1862 , Union Maj . Gen . Ambrose Burnside , commander of the Department of North Carolina , formed the North Carolina Expeditionary Corps and set about capturing key ports and cities . His successes at Roanoke Island and New Bern helped cement Federal control of a part of coastal Carolina . Fighting continued in North Carolina sporadically throughout the war , particularly along the coast , where the Union army launched several attempts to seize Fort Fisher . In the wars closing days , a large Federal force under William T . Sherman marched into North Carolina , and in a series of movements that became known as the Carolinas Campaign , occupied much of the state and defeated the Confederates in several key battles , including Averasborough and Bentonville . Unlike the wanton destruction Sherman ' s troops wrought upon Georgia and South Carolina , they proceeded into North Carolina with a modicum of restraint , as the state had not been especially eager to join the Confederacy . The surrender of General Joseph E . Johnston ' s Confederate army at Bennett Place in April 1865 essentially ended the war in the Eastern Theater .