6th Infantry Regiment State Troops was organized at Camp Alamance, near Company Shops (Burlington), North Carolina, in May, 1861. The men were from the counties of Mecklenburg, Orange, Burke, Catawba, McDowell, Mitchell, Yancey, Alamance, Rowan, Wake, Caswell, and Chatham. Ordered to Virginia the unit fought under General B. E. Bee, then spent the summer and winter in the Dumfries area. Its brigadiers during the conflict were Generals Whiting, Law, Hoke, Godwin, and W. G. Lewis. The 6th was prominent in the campaigns of the army from Seven Pines to Mine Run, then was active in the battles of Plymouth and Cold Harbor. It fought with Early in the Shenandoah Valley and later in the Appomattox operations.
This regiment reported 23 killed and 50 wounded at First Manassas, and in April, 1862, contained 715 effectives. It lost 115 during the Seven Days' Battles, 147 at Second Manassas and Ox Hill, 125 in the Maryland Campaign, and 25 at Fredericksburg. Of the 509 engaged at Gettysburg, thirty-six percent were disabled. At the Rappahannock River in November, 1863, it lost 5 killed, 15 wounded, and 317 missing, and there were 6 killed and 29 wounded at Plymouth. It surrendered with 6 officers and 175 men of which 72 were armed.
The field officers were Colonels Isaac E. Avery, Charles F. Fisher, William D. Pender, and Robert F. Webb; Lieutenant Colonels William T. Dortch, Charles E. Lightfoot, and Samuel M. Tate; and Major Richard W. York