≡ Menu

31st North Carolina Infantry

Editor’s Note: Do you have information on this unit’s role at the Siege of Petersburg?  Please contact us using the Contact button in the menu at the top of the screen.  We are happy to exchange information with other researchers.

Muster In: Organized on September 19, 1861. Captured at Roanoke Island on February 8, 1862.  Reorganized on September 17, 1862.1
Muster Out: April 26, 18652

Commander(s):
Colonel John V. Jordan
John V. Jordan 31st NC3

Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Knight
Commander Image

Lieutenant Edward J. Williams
Commander Image

Commander 3
Commander Image

First Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia | Confederate Army4

  • Commander:
    • Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Knight (at least June 16-18, 1864)5
  • Unit Strength:
  • Weapons:

Second Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia | Confederate Army6

  • Commander:
  • Unit Strength:
  • Weapons:

Third Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia | Confederate Army7

  • Commander: Colonel John V. Jordan8
  • Unit Strength:
  • Weapons:

Fourth Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia | Confederate Army9

  • Commander:
    • Colonel John V. Jordan10
    • ? (while Jordan commanded the brigade)11
  • Unit Strength:
  • Weapons:

Fifth Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia | Confederate Army12,13

  • Commander:
    • Colonel John V. Jordan (at least September 1, 1864)14
    • Lieutenant Edward J. Williams15
  • Unit Strength:
    • at most ~175 officers and men Present (NOT PFD!) (October 3, 1864)16
  • Weapons:

Sixth Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Fourth Corps | Army of Northern Virginia | Confederate Army17

  • Commander: Lieutenant Edward J. Williams (early October 1864)18
  • Unit Strength: ~60 officers and men PFD (early October 1864)19
  • Weapons:

Seventh Offensive Order of Battle: Clingman’s Brigade | Hoke’s Division | Fourth Corps | Army of Northern Virginia | Confederate Army20,21

  • Commander: Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Knight (November & December 1864)22,23
  • Unit Strength:
  • Weapons:
  • Note: Left the Siege of Petersburg sometime in December 1864 or January 1865.24,25

Eighth Offensive Order of Battle:

  • Not at Siege of Petersburg.26

Ninth Offensive Order of Battle:

  • Not at Siege of Petersburg.27

Dyer’s/Sifakis’ Compendium Info:
Siege of Petersburg Battles28:

  • Petersburg Siege (June 1864-April 1865)
  • Second Battle of Petersburg (June 15-18, 1864)
    • Assault of Ledlie’s Division (June 17, 1864)29
  • Globe Tavern (August 18-21, 1864)
  • Fort Harrison (September 29-30, 1864)

Bibliography:

    Siege of Petersburg Documents Which Mention This Unit:

    Sources:

    1. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 129-130 ↩
    2. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 129-130 ↩
    3. Clark, Walter. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65, Volume 2 (Nash Brothers: 1901), p. 506 ↩
    4. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., p. 114 ↩
    5. “Gen. Clingman’s Report of the Battles in Front of Petersburg on the 16th, 17th and 18th of June.” Our Living and Our Dead (New Bern, NC). March 18, 1874, p. 2 col. 2-5 ↩
    6. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., p. 114 ↩
    7. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 124 ↩
    8. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 124 ↩
    9. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 133 ↩
    10. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 133 ↩
    11. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 133 ↩
    12. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 141 ↩
    13. Sommers, Richard J. “Grant’s Fifth Offensive at Petersburg: A Study in Strategy, Tactics, and Generalship.  The Battle of Poplar Spring Church, the First Battle of the Darbytown Road, the Second Battle of the Squirrel Level Road, the Second Battle of the Darbytown Road (Ulysses S. Grant, Virginia).” Doctoral Thesis. Rice University, 1970. Print. p. 1314. ↩
    14. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 141 ↩
    15. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 141 ↩
    16. (Anchram H. Evans Letter to Wife on Oct. 3, 1864, Folder 58, Box 1), MS# 254 Anchram H. and Elizabeth K. Evans Civil War Letters, Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History, University of North Carolina Wilmington. https://archivesspace.uncw.edu/repositories/5/resources/432: “I drew rations for 195 men & officers this morning, but mind, there are many at the D. hospital.  The 8th Regt drew for about 100.  31 & 61 drew for about 175 each.” Thanks goes to 51st NC researcher Kirk Ward, author of The Honor of the State: The Story of the 51st North Carolina, for providing this information. I am assuming the regiments other than Evans’ own 51st NC also had men away in the hospital but were still drawing their rations. ↩
    17. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 147 ↩
    18. Clark, Walter. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65, Volume 2 (Nash Brothers: 1901), pp. 518-519: “In the battle of Fort Harrison,  one of the severest actions occurring on that front, Clingman’s Brigade, and particularly the Thirty-first Regiment, suffered terribly, so that when one of the writers, Adjutant Bryan, returned to the Regiment only a few days after this battle (date not remembered) he found the entire Regiment consisted of only about sixty men, commanded by First Lieutenant Williams, the ranking officer present.” ↩
    19. Clark, Walter. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65, Volume 2 (Nash Brothers: 1901), pp. 518-519: “In the battle of Fort Harrison,  one of the severest actions occurring on that front, Clingman’s Brigade, and particularly the Thirty-first Regiment, suffered terribly, so that when one of the writers, Adjutant Bryan, returned to the Regiment only a few days after this battle (date not remembered) he found the entire Regiment consisted of only about sixty men, commanded by First Lieutenant Williams, the ranking officer present.” ↩
    20. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 155 ↩
    21. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 166 ↩
    22. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 155 ↩
    23. The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr., page 166 ↩
    24. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 129-130: Sifakis does not list the exact date.  More research is needed. ↩
    25. Clark, Walter. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65, Volume 2 (Nash Brothers: 1901), pp. 518-519: “The command was ordered to Wilmington to participate in the defense of Fort Fisher 13 January, 1865.” ↩
    26. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 129-130 ↩
    27. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolina by Stewart Sifakis, pp. 129-130 ↩
    28. Compendium of the Confederate Armies: North Carolinaby Stewart Sifakis, pp. 129-130 ↩
    29. No title. The Daily Confederate (Raleigh, NC). July 18, 1864, p. 2 col. 3-4 ↩

    Tagged as: , , , ,

    { 0 comments… add one }

    Leave a Reply

    Next post:

    Previous post:

    Search SOPO

    SOPO RSS Feed

    Subscribe to The Siege of Petersburg Online RSS Feed

    Links