26th Infantry Regiment was organized in August, 1861, at "Crab Tree," a plantation three miles from Raleigh, North Carolina. Its members were recruited in the counties of Ashe, Union, Wilkes, Chatham, Wake, Caldwell, Moore, Alamance, Randolph, and Anson. The regiment served at Fort Macon, on Bogue Island, North Carolina, then fought at New Bern. During the war it was assigned to General R. Ransom's, Pettigrew's, Kirkland's, and MacRae's Brigade. It saw action in the Seven Days' Battles and later the conflicts at Rawls' Mills and Goldsboro. The 26th went on to fight with the Army of Northern Virginia from Gettysburg to Cold Harbor, took its place in the entrenchments south of the James River, and was involved in the final campaign at Appomattox. It lost 87 killed or wounded at New Bern, had 6 killed and 40 wounded during the Seven Days' Battles, and of the 843 engaged at Gettysburg, more than eighty percent wer disabled. The unit reported 16 killed and 83 wounded at Bristoe and on April 9, 1865, surrendered 10 officers and 120 men. Its commanders were Colonels Henry K. Burgwyn, Jr., John R. Lane, and Zebulon B. Vance; Lieutenant Colonels James T. Adams and John T. Jones; and Majors Abner B. Carmichael, James S. Kendall, and N.P. Rankin.
