Historian presenting Civil War research at NC Museum of History
New research reveals surprising findings about the number of North Carolina soldiers who died during the Civil War, according to theNorth Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.
Posted — UpdatedJosh Howard, a research historian at the N.C. Office of Archives and History, has spent more than a year spearheading the North Carolina Civil War Death Study.
The project has uncovered information that changes long-standing figures about the state’s losses. Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio are conducting similar research.
Howard will highlight his investigations and share stories he has discovered during History à la Carte: Recounting Civil War Sacrifices on July 27 at 12:10 p.m. at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. He will explain how he researches the topic and will discuss some of the soldiers’ unusual experiences.
Admission is free, and visitors can bring their own lunches. Beverages are free.
Howard has painstakingly examined not only official military records, but records from hospitals, cemeteries, churches, prisoner-of-war camps, pensions and more, according to the NCDCR. He has combed through archival and newspaper accounts, diaries, census data and other sources to try to determine military deaths among North Carolina Confederate and Union units.
Howard notes that traditional accounts of Tar Heel deaths did not include the approximately 2,000 black and white North Carolinians who died serving in the Union army.
