There were approximately 10,000 battles and skirmishes in the Civil War, with 380 considered major engagements. The Battle of Bentonville was the largest battle fought in North Carolina and the last full-scale Confederate offensive. During the battle the location's Harper House served as a Union field hospital. The state's Salisbury National Cemetery has mass graves containing 11,700 unknown Union soldiers buried in 18 trenches (each 240 feet long) marked by head and foot stones. The graves are adjacent to the former site of a Confederate prison. Also see Civil War Sites Advisory Commission Report on the Nations Civil War Battlefields.

While at least 125,000 Tar Heels served in service of the Confederate States of America, almost eight times that number remained at home. Faced with scarcities, exorbitant prices, and depreciating currency, farm wives and plantation mistresses, old men and small children, free blacks and domestic servants strove to make ends meet. In 1860 there were 69,000 farms in North Carolina. 46,000 of these, or 71%, were less than 100 acres in size. In 1860 there were only 300 plantations of 1,000 acres or more in the state. The 1860 census listed 121 planters and 85,198 farmers. North Carolina has a long history of small farm size. Cattle and hogs were on free range. Livestock was fenced out of fields and cutting trees for fence rails was a major cause of forest destruction. And, in 1861, 71% of North Carolina's slave population resided in the Coastal Plain Region, with the Southern Appalachian Mountains considered the poorest region of North Carolina. Consequently, the Reconstruction  witnessed many bankrupted industries in North Carolina, including agriculture.

During the American Civil War, houses were stripped of draperies and carpets to provide clothing and shelter for North Carolina's troops. Even donated church bells were melted down and recast as cannon. Parched corn was substituted for coffee, and spinning wheels once more competed with power looms. Yet opportunistic merchants and unscrupulous blockade runners continued to sell their goods at the highest prices the market would bear. Bacon jumped from $.33 to $7.50 per pound, wheat went from $3 to $50 a bushel, and coffee was selling at $100 per pound.

North Carolina provided at least 125,000 soldiers to the Confederacy and the Tar Heel State recruited more soldiers than any southern state. Over 620,000 died in the Civil War and 40,000 were North Carolinians. The Old North State provided 69 infantry regiments and 4 infantry battalions; 9 cavalry regiments and 9 cavalry battalions; 2 heavy artillery battalions, 4 artillery regiments, 3 light artillery battalions, and 4 light artillery batteries. Several North Carolina infantry regiments mustered 1,500 soldiers, while few regiments mustered as many as 1,800. North Carolina's sole legion, Thomas' Legion, mustered over 2,500 soldiers. The average Civil War regiment mustered 1,100 soldiers. Approximately 10,000 white North Carolinians served the United States during the war, while more than 5,000 North Carolina African Americans joined the Union Army. These free blacks and escaped slaves served in segregated regiments led by white officers.

The greatest loss sustained by any regiment (North or South) during the war was the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg. It sent more than 800 men into action and more than eighty percent were disabled.