Civil War Ancestors Resources and Information

Where to find genealogy information on ancestors who served in the Civil War

• At the Cemetery: Many Civil War veterans were given government-issued headstones, or included details about their service on their grave markers. You can also look for a Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) medallion located near the grave of a Union veteran. The G.A.R. was formed by and for Civil War Union veterans and ceased to exist when the last Union veteran died in 1956.
• 1910 U.S. Census: Column 30 was used to indicate whether or not men over 50 were Civil War veterans. The results were entered as UA for Union Army, UN for Union Navy, CA for Confederate Army, and CN for Confederate Navy. Because many surviving Civil War records pertain mostly to Union veterans, the 1910 census is a great resource for locating Confederate veterans still living at the time.
• 1890 Special Schedule of Union Veterans and Widows:Only part of the record survived the fire, but you can check records for half of Kentucky through Wyoming, plus the District of Columbia; records for people living in Alabama through part of Kentucky were lost. Civil war veterans and widows of veterans are listed.
  
• Index to U.S. Military Pension Applications of Remarried Widows for Service between 1812 and 1911, transcribed by Virgil D. White, 1999.
• 1865 New York State Census and other state Census records: The 1865 New York State Census includes information about Union veterans living AND dead. If you are tracing someone who lived in Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, or Wisconsin, be sure to check the appropriate state census.
• National Archives in Washington, DC, has Compiled Military Service Records (CMSRs) for both Union and Confederate veterans. These files are short summaries of attendance and pay records. If a soldier was captured, there might be more information, but there is rarely any personal information other than the occasional physical description. Many of these records are available online at Footnote.com. You can also read more about how to order copies of these records from NARA at: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html. 
• Union Pension Files: Both Ancestry.com and Footnote.com have digitized NARA indexes to the Union pension files. If you are still having trouble linking a veteran with a common name to your family tree, the pension files often contain a great deal of genealogical information.Remember, not everyone applied for a pension
• Men in the United States Colored Troops: Ancestry has the Series T288 index (sorted by the veteran's surname), and Footnote has the Series T289 index (sorted by state and unit). Men in the United States Colored Troops are included in these files. Once you have verified that a veteran (or his dependents) received a pension, you can use the NARA link cited above to order a copy of the file. Some pension files, particularly those of widows, Navy survivors, and Navy widows, have been digitized and posted on Footnote.com.
• State Confederate Pensions: The federal government did not grant pensions to Confederate veterans, but many individual states did. An excellent summary of where those records are located can be found on the NARA website here: http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/military/civil-war/confederate/pension.html. Some states, such as Georgia, have digitized and posted online their Confederate pension files. 
• Civil War Rosters: Some states have posted Civil War rosters, some of which include physical descriptions of the men.
• National Park Service's Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database has lists of Union and Confederate soldiers, as well as African American sailors.
• Canadians in the American Civil War at: http://www.geocities.com/cancivwar/cancivwar.html 
• Jewish-American Civil War Veterans at: http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/USA/. 
• http://www.civilwardata.com/