The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly known as the Confederation, were established in 1861, announcing their separation (secession) from the Union, ie the United States of America. This event, as well as many others, also of considerable importance, led to the outbreak of the bloodiest war in the history of the United States, known as the American Civic War, which was fought in the years 1861-1865. Of course, both in the North and in the South, when the war broke out, the army began to be built. In the case of the Confederate army, the main type of armed force, in terms of numbers, was the infantry. Confederate infantry from the very beginning of the war was formed into regiments, and several regiments formed a brigade. It is worth adding that in the course of the Civil War, it was the individual states of the CSA that formed the regiments, hence the names of the regiments with the state from which they come from can often be found. The size of the regiment was not uniform and at the beginning of the war it ranged from about 1000 to about 2000 people. With time, along with the battles fought, these full-time numbers drastically decreased and, for example, at Gettysburg (1863), the 18th Regiment from North Carolina had only about 400 people - let us add that it was no exception in the forces of General Robert Lee. The basic weapon of a CSA infantry soldier was a rifle with a rifled barrel. Added to this was, of course, a side weapon - apart from a bayonet, it could have been a cleaver, a long knife, etc. It is worth adding that the Confederate infantry clearly (especially in the years 1861-1863) dominated the EU infantry by the will to fight, morale, familiarity with weapons and general combat value. It was also often fought by great commanders, such as General Robert Lee or James Longstreet.
The 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment was a Confederate infantry unit that was very active during the Civil War (1861-1865). The lion's share of this armed conflict was fought as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. The unit was formed at Camp Wyatt in North Carolina, initially called the 8th Volunteers in July 1861. In the period 1861-1862, it served in North, South Carolina and Virginia. Initially, the unit consisted of about 1,100 soldiers and officers, but during the seven-day battle in 1862, it lost as much as 75% of its manpower. Interestingly, during the Battle of Gettysburg, the regiment was able to deploy only about 400 soldiers and officers, of which 25% of the state was killed or wounded in that battle. At the time of the surrender of the 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment at Appomattox Court in April 1865, there were only about 90 soldiers and officers! The unit's combat trail was very long, and the regiment's soldiers took part in many battles, including the Seven-Day Battle, at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. It is worth adding that the soldiers of this unit were most likely responsible for the mistaken shooting of General Stonewall Jackson.