In the summer of 1861, the people of Yadkin County, North Carolina, like people all over the South, talked, prayed and fretted about their young new nation. The U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's call for North Carolina to provide troops for his invasion of the seceded states of the South had propelled "The Old North State" into the Confederacy. Now, only days after the Union's initial invasion of the South at Manassas Junction, Virginia, had been repelled, it was clear that independence for the Confederacy would not be achieved without a fight. In order to defend their country, state, homes and families, Governor Ellis and the North Carolina state legislature called for all able bodied, patriotic men to volunteer to serve their country. Over 120,000 North Carolinians answered this call. Over 40,000 paid the ultimate price for their homeland, more than any other southern state.

On August 13, 1861, over one hundred of these men from Yadkin County, North Carolina, volunteered to form Company I of the 28th Regiment of North Carolina State Troops. Nicknamed the "Yadkin Stars", these men would serve nobly under Captain Asbury Speer. They went on to serve under such great men as Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, D. H. Hill, Lawrence O. Branch, and James H. Lane. They would fight to defend their country and secure its independence in places like New Bern, Hanover Courthouse, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. Their honor and bravery is a proud heritage for every Yadkin County and North Carolina native. That their cause failed does not diminish their unexcelled record of service.