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Civil War

Beginning Your Research

 
A Note about FamilySearch.org
Many of the sources given here are found on FamilySearch.org. This site is continually adding new files and indexing existing files. Be sure to keep checking FamilySearch.org for new information!

 

In our Catalog do a Keyword search for: United States--History--Civil War or [Name of State]--History--Civil War

  • 369.17 CON NCC. The Confederate Veteran. A magazine published from 1893 to 1932. The Gastonia Main Library has a complete set with an index.
    • The N.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans also provides free online downloads to The Confederate Veteran.
      • Go to: http://www.ncscv.org/about-membership/conf-veteran-magazine
  • 929 NOR NCC. Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors: The Research Resources You Need for Success! by David A. Norris.
  • 929.1 NOR NCC. North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History (2nd ed.) by Helen Leary should be consulted for information on North Carolina records.
  • The Ancestry Library Edition has over 40 specialized databases you can search related to the Civil War, including lists of soldiers, pension indexes and service records.
  • Better Soldiers and Sailors. This free site uses the same database as the original "Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System" which is no longer being updated or maintained by the National Park Service. Go to: https://bettersoldiersandsailors.com
  • Fold3 includes “Civil War Service Records” (search images by name or browse by state), “Civil War Pensions Index” (Union), “Southern Claims”, “Confederate Amnesty Papers”, “Confederate Casualty Reports”, and more.
    Go to: https://fold3library.proquest.com/barcode?accountid=11047 Log into Fold3 with your library card.
  • FamilySearch.org contains Civil War record collections including service records for both the Confederate and the Union armies, pension records, and more. Filter by collection name with keywords "civil war", "confederate", or "union."
    Go to: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list

Carolina Confederates

We recommend that you start with NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS when looking for a North Carolina Confederate:

INDEX

 

Print

  • 973.7025 MAN NCC. North Carolina Troops, 1861 - 1865: A Roster by the N.C. Dept. of Archives and History. 22 vols + supplemental corrections volume. Service record information for soldiers is included. Gastonia Main Library.

 

Online

 

  • "1890 Veterans Schedules" are a special census of Union veterans and widows; in some areas, Confederate veterans were listed as well. Sometimes a Confederate soldier's name appeared and was indicated by the census taker with a line drawn through the name and “Confed.” written by the name.
    While often used as a partial substitute for the damaged 1890 federal census, nearly all of the census for states alphabetically before Kentucky have not survived. The existing schedules are available in the Ancestry Library Edition.

Service Records

  • North Carolina, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861 – 1865 (Indexed and searchable; Images available on Fold3)
    Go to: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1932376
  • South Carolina Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 (Indexed and searchable; Images available on Fold3)
    Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1849624
  • Fold3 includes “Civil War Service Records” (search images by name or browse by state; NOT all of the names are indexed)
    Go to: https://fold3library.proquest.com/barcode?accountid=11047 (Log into Fold3 with your library card).
  • 973.745 SOU NCC. Confederate State Roster: South Carolina. 2 vols. Gives the name and outfit for every South Carolina soldier included in the National Archives "Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers".
  • NOTE: If the Civil War Service Record shows that the "Name appears on a Register of Claims of Deceased Officers and Soldiers from North Carolina which were filed for settlement in the Office of the Confederate States Auditor for the War Department" 
    then contact the National Archives for Register of Claims for Pay, Clothing, Bounties, and Horses, ca. 1865–ca. 1878
    This series consists of a register of claims filed on behalf of deceased soldiers by their next of kin or by their attorneys. Entries contain the soldier's name; his rank, company, and regiment; the name and address of the next of kin or attorney; the date and nature of the claim; and the amount awarded. This Series contains records, none of which are available online.
    Go to: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7172242

Prisoner Records

  • 929.3 CON N.C.C Confederate soldiers, sailors, and civilians who died as prisoners of war at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., 1862-1865
  • 973.7 KIR NCC. Dark hours: South Carolina soldiers, sailors, and citizens who were held in Federal prisons during the war for southern independence, 1861-1865. by Randolph W. Kirkland, Jr.
  • United States Records of Confederate Prisoners of War, 1861-1865 (browse images)
    Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1916234
  • U.S., Civil War Prisoner of War Records, 1861-1865 (search by name or browse images) Ancestry Library Edition (available only in the libraries).

Pardons, Oaths of Allegiance

Pensions

Confederate Home

NOTE: Not all images for applications are available in one database. If image is not found in one of the databases, then check for the image in the other database.

Online Records Index South Carolina Archives & History. Search by name or Select the Record Group, "Records of Confederate Veterans, 1863-1973" to search index and images for "S128004 (Applications For Veterans' Admission (Confederate Home))"
Go to: https://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/

 

South Carolina, Confederate Home Records, 1909-1958 Images of application folders of Confederate veterans who were inmates of the South Carolina Confederate Home in Columbia. Originals are located at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. 
Go to: https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/collection/2126716

 

Southern Claims Commission

  • Fold3 includes “Southern Claims Commission” records. Commission established to address southerners' petitions for compensation of supplies, livestock, and other items taken by the Union troops during the Civil War. Includes first-person accounts of freedmen from testimonial files found in claims submitted to the Commissioners of Claims. States with approved claims (available online free)  that have been filmed by the National Archives (NARA) include Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia. Also visit Southern Claims Commission Approved Claims, 1871-1880 for more states.
    Go to: https://fold3library.proquest.com/barcode?accountid=11047 Log into Fold3 with your library card.
    NOTE: You may want to start with the U.S., Southern Claims Commission Master Index, 1871-1880 in Ancestry Library Edition to search for a name. Ancestry also has U.S., Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims, 1871-1880.
  • Fold3 includes Confederate Papers Relating to Citizen or Business Firms. (M346, Record Group 109, War Department Collection of Confederate Records) "They were used to facilitate post-war claims cases filed by Southern citizens. The vouchers show goods furnished or services rendered by private citizens and firms to the Confederate government, establishing the disloyalty of Southern claimants."

Obituaries, Burials

Headstones and Markers

Pre-World War I Era Headstones and Markers

According to the National Cemetery Administration, proof of military service prior to World War I requires detailed primary documentation, such as Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR), extracts from official State files, Federal pension documents or land warrants, to be considered for a Government-furnished headstone or marker.

Go To: https://www.cem.va.gov/cem/hmm/pre_WWI_era.asp

Carolina Unionists

  • List of North Carolina Union Civil War units https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_North_Carolina_Union_Civil_War_units
  • 973.74 GAR NCC Mountain myth: unionism in Western North Carolina. Garren, Terrell T. Includes list of Union Troops from Western North Carolina.
  • 973.741 ROS v.2 NCC. The Roster of Union Soldiers, 1861 – 1865, Vol. 2. Includes North Carolina.
  • "1890 Veterans Schedules" are a special census of Union veterans and widows; in some areas, Confederate veterans were listed as well. Sometimes a Confederate soldier's name appeared and was indicated by the census taker with a line drawn through the name and “Confed.” written by the name.
    While often used as a partial substitute for the damaged 1890 federal census, nearly all of the census for states alphabetically before Kentucky have not survived. The existing schedules are available in the Ancestry Library Edition.

      

         Service Records

 

          Pensions

 

African Americans in the Civil War

Online

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System contains 6.3 million soldiers [Union and Confederate] including 18,000 African-American Union sailors.
Go to: https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm

 

Service Records

 

Pensions

 

Southern Claims Commission

  • Fold3 includes “Southern Claims Commission” records. Commission established to address southerners' petitions for compensation of supplies, livestock, and other items taken by the Union troops during the Civil War. Includes first-person accounts of freedmen from testimonial files found in claims submitted to the Commissioners of Claims. States with approved claims (available online free)  that have been filmed by the National Archives (NARA) include Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia. Also visit Southern Claims Commission Approved Claims, 1871-1880 for more states.
    Go to: https://fold3library.proquest.com/barcode?accountid=11047 Log into Fold3 with your library card.
    NOTE: You may want to start with the U.S., Southern Claims Commission Master Index, 1871-1880 in Ancestry Library Edition to search for a name. Ancestry also has U.S., Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims, 1871-1880.

 

Books

929.1 NGS NCC 31. "Tracing African Americans during the Civil War," by Christopher A. Nordmann. NGS NewsMagazine. Vol. 31, No. 3 (July/August/September 2005). Pgs. 19-23.

929.2 NOR NCC. "Black North Carolina Confederate Pensioners," by Russell Scott Koonts. North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal. Vol. 21, No. 4 (Nov. 1995). Pgs. 343-352.

973.7 ASH Firebrand of liberty: the story of two Black regiments that changed the course of the Civil War. Ash, Stephen V.

973.7 BLA NCC Black Southerners in Gray: essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate armies.
Includes the essay “Black Confederates in Lincoln County, North Carolina” by Rudolph Young.

973.7 FOR NCC. Forgotten Confederates: An Anthology about Black Southerners by Charles Kelly Barrow, et al., eds.

973.7 LEV Searching for black Confederates: the Civil War's most persistent myth.by Levin, Kevin M.

973.7 REI Freedom for themselves: North Carolina's Black soldiers in the Civil War era. Reid, Richard M., Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

973.74 GAR NCC Mountain myth: unionism in Western North Carolina. Garren, Terrell T. Includes list of Union Troops from Western North Carolina.

973 .74 GLA NCC United States colored troops, 1863-1867. Gladstone, William A.

973.7415 HEL NCC. South Carolina's African American Confederate Pensioners, 1923-1925. by Helsley, Alexia Jones. South Carolina Department of Archives and History, c1998.

973.7415 TAY A Black woman's Civil War memoirs: reminiscences of my life in camp with the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, late 1st South Carolina Volunteers. by Taylor, Susie King (c1988.).

973.742 YOU NCC Confederates in the bloodline: an American story. Young, Rudolph.

 

The National Archives and State Repositories

More Resources

  • 929.1 NGS NCC 31. "Tracing African Americans during the Civil War," by Christopher A. Nordmann. NGS NewsMagazine. Vol. 31, No. 3 (July/August/September 2005). Pgs. 19-23.
  • 929.1 NGS NCC 34. "Anatomy of a Union Civil War Pension File," by Prechtel-Kluskens Claire. NGS NewsMagazine. Vol. 34, No. 3 (July-November 2008). Pgs. 43-48.
  • 929.373 DOL NCC. Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era: Online and Published Military or Civilian Name Lists, 1861-1869, and Post-War Veteran Lists by William Dollarhide. Describes national and state resources, on the Internet, in print, and repositories.
  • 973 UNI NCC. The War of the Rebellion : A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Prepared under the Direction of the Secretary of War... 127 vols. Based on Union and Confederate records; might contain a mention of your ancestor, especially if he was an officer. Hint: The "Index" is to the volumes only. Once you get to that volume, check the volume index for individual page numbers. Also note that the "Index" is not complete so also try the online search mentioned below.
  • Library Research Guides:
    Go to: https://gastonlibrary.org/research/genealogy-local-history/
  • Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet – United States – U. S. Military: Civil War includes genealogy links covering everything from African-American soldiers, Civil War cemeteries, prisons, photographs, etc.
    Go to: https://www.cyndislist.com/us/civil-war


 

Author: Gaston County Public Library
Title: Finding Civil War Soldiers
URL: https://gastonlibrary.libguides.com/civil-war/finding-civil-war-soldiers
Revised: 28 July 2025

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