Four regiments of white North Carolinians served the Union during the Civil War: the 1st and 2nd North Carolina Union Volunteer Infantry in the Coastal Plain and the 2nd and 3rd North Carolina Union Mounted Infantry in the Mountains. The Union also recruited a black brigade in North Carolina, the African Brigade, which consisted of ex-slaves.
The western units, the 2nd and 3rd North Carolina Union Mounted Infantry, were organized in October 1863 and June 1864, respectively, and headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn. Enlisting soldiers for these regiments was not difficult. Unionism was strong in the Mountains, where many residents resented the slaveholding aristocracy of the eastern planters. This was especially evident in Henderson, Transylvania, Yancey, Madison, Mitchell, and Wilkes Counties. Pro-Union sentiment was so strong in Wilkes that Confederates referred to the county as the "Old United States." A Union company organized in Henderson County in 1863 later became Company F, 2nd North Carolina Mounted Union Volunteer Regiment. Early in the war "underground railroads" secretly guided southern Unionists to northern recruiting stations in Tennessee and elsewhere. These men were joined by numerous North Carolinians who had deserted the southern armies following the devastating Confederate defeats at Vicksburg and Gettysburg.