Campus debates about slavery and secession and the military experience of students and faculty who fought in the Civil War.
- William Gaston (1778-1844), a prominent attorney, judge, and university trustee
- Benjamin S. Hedrick (1827-1886)
- David L. Swain (1801-1868)
- Colonel Henry King Burgwyn, Jr. (1841-1863), university student killed at Gettysburg
- Zebulon B. Vance (1830-1894)
- Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew (1828-1863)
- Major General Bryan Grimes (1828-1880)
- William J. Martin (1839-1896)
- Samuel Field Phillips (1824-1903)
- Runaway slave hiding in a swamp
- Confederates failed to stop Sherman in Fayetteville, sketch of battle on March 11, 1865
- William A. Graham (1804-1875)
- Wilson Caldwell (1841-1898)
- Archeologists found a Union army uniform button—possibly belonging to one of Atkins's soldiers—when excavating at the James Lee Love House on Chapel Hill's Franklin Street.
- Eleanor Swain Atkins (ca. 1843-1881)
- President David L. Swain (1801-1868)
- Confederate Monument ("Silent Sam")