[Walter Clark, editor of the source cited below, gave this regiment the nomenclature of 73rd NC Regiment, but it was never known as this contemporaneously. There were no legitimate NC Regiments numbered past the 69th NC Regiment (7th Cavalry). Later regiments were created for Reserves and for Detailed Men, which had their own numbering schema.]

As to the 7th NC Regiment Senior Reserves, alone we have a partial sketch, written by John G. Albright, 1st Lieutenant of Company A, which was published in Our Living and Dead, October 1874, pp. 134-137, and which is used as the basis of the sketch of that regiment. We also have in Moore's Roster, Volume 4, pp. 333-344, the muster rolls of six (6) companies purporting to belong to the 4th NC Regiment Senior Reserves, but the Field Officers and all the companies except Company A (which belonged to the 7th NC Regiment Senior Reserves) seem to have belonged to the 8th NC Regiment Senior Reserves. At pp. 345-358 are the muster rolls of seven (7) of the companies of what purports to be the 4th NC Regiment Senior Reserves and its Field Officers, but in fact they seem to have belonged to the 7th NC Regiment Senior Reserves. To those should be added Company A, which is erroneously given on pp. 333-335 as belonging to the 4th NC Regiment Senior Reserves.

The muster rolls of all the regiments of Junior and Senior Reserves were captured, with the other Confederate muster rolls, after the fall of Richmond, and are now in the Bureau of Pensions and Records at Washington, but to an application by the writer, backed by an official request of Governor Charles B. Aycock, Brig. Gen. Frederick C. Ainsworth, in charge of the Bureau, gave only the list of the field officers of the eight (8) regiments of Reserves (Junior Reserves and Senior Reserves, which we already had in Lt. Gen. Holmes' Order Book), and stated that owing to the precarious condition of the rolls written on Confederate-made paper, he could not give a list of the company officers or men without an Act of Congress. We know by incidental mention in Lt. Gen. Holmes' letter book that Captains Turner and Surratt [?] commanded two (2) of the companies.

The 4th NC Regiment Senior Reserves were as already stated, Senior Reserves, i.e., men between the ages of 45 and 50. The names of the company officers can only be had from the rolls at Washington, which are now not accessible. The regiment was organized in July of 1864, at Salisbury, by the election of—

John Franklin Hoke, Colonel.
Leroy W. Stowe, Lieutenant Colonel.
John N. Price, Major.

All three of these had seen previous service. Col. John F. Hoke in the beginning of the war was Adjutant General of North Carolina, and later for a time, Colonel of the 13th NC Volunteers; Lt. Colonel Stowe and Maj. Prior had both served in Virginia, and been wounded, in consequence of which the former (who was Captain of Company M in the 16th NC Regiment) had resigned due to serious wounds, and the latter assigned to light duty was Lieutenant and Enrolling Officer when elected Major of this regiment. Robert P. Waring, of Mecklenburg County, who had served as Captain of Company B in the 43rd NC Regiment, was appointed Adjutant, J. M. Williams was appointed Surgeon, and Daniel W. Perry was appointed Assistant Surgeon. John F. Hill was Captain of Company K.

A portion of the regiment was assigned to the important duty of guarding the bridges on the lines of railways upon which depended the sustenance and recruiting of our armies and the remaining companies were sent to Salisbury to guard the thousands of prisoners there confined, thus relieving other troops for the field.

The regiment was ordered to Raleigh on August 21, 1864 for service at Wilmington, but was stopped at Greensborough and soon after it was sent to Salisbury where it performed the duties above mentioned till March 4, 1865, when not being longer needed to guard prisoners, it was placed in the 8th Congressional District to arrest deserters with regimental headquarters at Salisbury.

A brigade was formed in November of 1864, of the 4th, 5th, and 6th NC Regiments Senior Reserves, all of which were on the same service, guarding prisoners at Salisbury, bridges on railroads, and arresting deserters. This brigade was placed under command of Col. John F. Hoke with headquarters at Salisbury. The services performed were useful and indispensable and relieved other troops for service in the field. On some occasions there were fights with deserters who were armed and when banded together made themselves a terror to certain neighborhoods. The only time these three (3) regiments seemed to have come in contact with the enemy was when Federal Maj. Gen. George Stoneman made his raid to Salisbury on April 12, 1865 to release the prisoners at that point.

Upon General Joseph E. Johnston's (VA) surrender, some few of the regiment were paroled, but the majority doubtless went home without ceremony.