re: Civil War nicknames for SEC states..

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My guess the "tar heels" come from the fact that early settlers were brought over by Baron DeGraffenreid (including my ancestors) to work in the tar industry.

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The term Tar Heels did originate during the war. Nickname given to troops from N. Carolina that stood during a fight and refused to retreat or give ground.During the late unhappy war between the States it [North Carolina] was sometimes called the "Tar-heel State," because tar was made in the State, and because in battle the soldiers of North Carolina stuck to their bloody work as if they had tar on their heels, and when General Lee said, "God bless the Tar-heel boys," they took the name.