Flag of Gaston Blues, Co. H, 37th NCST

The flag of the Gaston (NC) Blues, Co. H, 37th NC State Troops

The Gaston (County) Blues mustered into Confederate service as Company H, 37th North Carolina Infantry, forming a part of Lane's North Carolina Brigade, and participated in all major actions of the Army of Northern Virginia from their baptism of fire at New Berne, NC, on 14 May, 1862--to the end of the war--including Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg where the unit suffered heavily in the Confederate assault on the Union center on the afternoon of July 3.

Colonel Barbour, the regiment's commander, stated in a report shortly after the Gettysburg Campaign, that "The regiment has lost one hundred and fifty men killed, seventy who have died of wounds, three hundred and two who have died of disease, and three hundred and thirty two have been wounded and recovered. Total loss killed and wounded, five hundred and fifty two....Fourteen officers of this regiment have been killed or mortally wounded... There are but six officers in the regiment who have not been wounded, a large number (both officers and men) have been wounded more than once." Stark testimony to the battle history of the Fighting Thirty-seventh.

For more information, see the Gaston Blues History and Roster and the 37th NC: Gaston Blues page.