Beginning United States Civil War Research

United States     U.S. Military      Civil War, 1861 to 1865



Steps
Many records are available to help you find information about your Civil War ancestor. The following are good steps to start:

Step 1. Identify an ancestor you wish to find in Civil War military records.

 * - Ages: Most soldiers and sailors were between the ages of 18 and 40, so they would have been born between 1821 and 1846. Some were as young as 10 or as old as 70, which widens the birth years to between 1791 and 1854.


 * - Location: Soldiers and sailors came from all over the continental United States.:[[Image:]]


 * Union (25 states and 5 territories)
 * States= California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin
 * Border states (4 states were for the Union but had slaves. Many men served in the Confederacy instead of the Union)= Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, West Virginia
 * Territories=Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Utah, Washington


 * Confederate (11 states and 3 territories)
 * States= Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia
 * Territories=Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma

Step 2. Decide what you want to find.
Focus your research by deciding on just one or two things that you want to find, such as the soldier's regiment and company, age, death date and place, pension record, or service record. You will need his regiment and company to find him in some of the records, so that should be the first thing you should find.


 * - Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database to find your soldier with his a regiment and company.
 * You may find several soldiers who match your ancestor. If this happens, copy the information about all of them and continue searching to eliminate all but one.

Step 3. Check sources listed on the following Wiki pages

 * - United States Civil War, 1861 to 1865
 * - [state] in the Civil War page for the state where your ancestor lived before and after the war. See the list below for links to the state pages.
 * - The regiment page for the regiment of your soldier
 * - The county page for the county where your soldier lived before and after the war.

Search the 1890 U.S. Veterans Schedules.

Union Regular Troops
Union Regular Army in the Civil War

Union Volunteers in the Civil War

Veteran Reserve Corps in the Civil War

Confederate Regular Troops
Confederate Regular Troops in the Civil War

Ethnic Groups
African Americans, see United States Colored Troops in the Civil War

Native Americans in the Civil War

Norwegians in the Civil War