4th North Carolina Infantry

4th North Carolina Infantry Regiment
4th North Carolina battle flag (1862)
Active	1861 to April 9, 1865
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	North Carolina
Branch	Confederate States Army
Type	Infantry
Engagements	American Civil War Peninsular Campaign Maryland Campaign Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Chancellorsville Gettysburg Campaign Bristoe Campaign Mine Run Campaign Wilderness Campaign Valley Campaigns of 1864 Richmond-Petersburg Campaign Appomattox Campaign

American Civil War

Not to be confused with the "4th North Carolina Regiment" of the American Revolution, or the "4th North Carolina Regiment" of the Spanish-American War.

The 4th North Carolina Infantry was a Confederate States Army regiment during the American Civil War, active from 1861 until the war's end in April 1865. Ordered to Virginia, the unit served in General Winfield S. Featherston’s, George B. Anderson’s, Stephen D. Ramseur’s, and William R. Cox’s Brigade. Its field officers were Colonels George B. Anderson, Bryan Grimes, Edwin A. Osborne, and James H. Wood; Lieutenant Colonels David M. Carter and John A. Young; and Majors Edward S. Marsh and Absalom K. Simonton. It was nicknamed "The Bloody Fourth" after the high rate of casualties at the Battle of Seven Pines.

The 4th North Carolina regiment was raised in 1861 from central and western North Carolina, with George B. Anderson as its first colonel. The regiment completed its organization in May 1862, at Camp Hill, near Garysburg, North Carolina. It recruited its members in Iredell, Rowan, Wayne, Beaufort, Wilson, and Davie counties.

At the Battle of Seven Pines the 4th North Carolina regiment justly earned its sobriquet of the “Bloody Fourth”. The regiment was here commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Grimes, who led the charge, and was the only officer surviving the fight unwounded. The Fourth went into battle with 520 men and 25 officers- “the noble 545.” In carrying the works it lost 462 men and 24 officers killed and wounded; this was the bloodiest charge of the war. In this battle the color guard being killed, the intrepid and heroic John Stikeleather became color bearer, and proudly bore the banner to its surrender at Appomattox.

Anderson was mortally wounded at the Bloody Lane during the Battle of Sharpsburg (Battle of Antietam) in 1862 and command of the unit passed to Lieutenant Colonel Bryan Grimes.