Ports had little to do with North Carolina providing good uniforms for it’s troops. In early 1862, the NC government purchased an abandoned knitting mill. They began to manufacture their own uniform cloth. The NC Govt. then established a sewing operation near the mill and produced uniforms for NC soldiers. The NC govt. made many thousand uniform trousers and jackets at this facility, right up to the end of the war. Getting the clothing to their troops however was a different set of problems which they unable to solve the last year of the war.
Zebulon Vance was a great governor and would have been regardless of his situation, but given the circumstance of governing a State that voted somewhat reluctantly and very late to secede, after more or less being surrounded by seceding States, was an extremely difficult task and he did so with great concern over the people of his State. NC not only purchased manufacturing facilities for uniforms but also purchased it’s own Navy. Vance was a westerner, and western NC had little truck with slavery, secessionist sentiment was very low there. He was a good man. No doubt some here would condemn him after the fact as a racist or some such silliness. Well, no, he was a good and decent man.
Open ports kept troops from AL and NC well equipped compared to other state in the south. This is what I have read in many sources. Actually I read a letter from the GA governor complaining about this very thing to Jeff Davis.