Researching Your Civil War Ancestors
A Research Guide from the Oklahoma Historical Society
The American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, affected every family living in the United States. If your family included a male born around 1840, it is likely he participated in the war. Over 600,000 men died in this bloodiest of wars, with well over one million serving the Confederacy and over two million in the Union.
Getting Started
Where to begin if you want to know whether your family member served? A good starting point is to locate your family in the 1860 census. Are there South of military age (17–50) living in the household? These ages shifted as the war progressed, but begin by looking for males born 1826–1840. Consider where these persons were living. Most who lived in the South served in the Confederacy, but in some southern states, particularly eastern Tennessee, there were strong areas of Union support. Don’t get too entrenched in searching for only one “side.” In some cases, men served on both sides.
Once you have found the names in your family of the appropriate age and considered their geographical location, check Janet B. Hewett’s The Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861–1865 or The Roster of Union Soldiers, 1861–1865. These volumes are at the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center, and are organized by state and then by name. If you don’t find the person you are looking for in one set, check the other. These volumes will provide the unit in which your relative served. The records are arranged at the archival level by service unit.
Another resource for this information is the National Park Service’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database. At this site, you can also check for regimental histories. These histories provide information on a units’ formation and the battles in which they participated.
Service Records
To find the service record for your family member, you have several choices. Many of the basic records have been microfilmed. You can order them from the National Archives once you locate the name and the regimental details. Information about the Civil War records can be found on the National Archives website.
Individual states sometimes have records for Confederate soldiers serving from that state as well. In addition, Fold3.com has digitized the Civil War service records. Check Fold3.com for the state from which your soldier served. Fold3.com is a subscription database available in the Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center and some public libraries.
In general, however, Confederate records are not as well preserved as the Union records. Record-keeping was not well-organized by this newly formed government, and many records did not survive the war. However, it is worth the effort to obtain the records. At a minimum, records will provide the date and place of enlistment and a physical description of the soldier.
Pensions
You should also check to see if your soldier or his widow received a pension. The index for the Union soldier pensions can be found at Ancestry.com and at Fold3.com.
The name of the index for these records is Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900. The index card will provide the number of the pension, whether for the soldier, widow, or other dependent, and the date of the law under which the pension was granted. In addition, cards may provide the date and place of death of the soldier.
Remember that the United States did not initially provide pensions to Confederates—they served a government in rebellion against the federal government, after all, and did not qualify for assistance. The other major difference is that pensions for Confederates are not held at the national level, but in the state where the soldier was living at the time a state passed legislation to provide pensions. Pensions from a few states began quickly after the war for soldiers who had lost limbs, but other states, e.g., Oklahoma, did not grant pensions until 1915.
Veterans applied for a pension to the state where he lived, not from the state from which he served. You can see the dates and repositories for Confederate pensions at archives.gov. Indexes for Confederate pensions are available both in print and online. Orders for copies of the pensions should be made to the state that granted the pension. Oklahoma Confederate pensions are indexed at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries website.
The Research Center holds the microfilmed Oklahoma Confederate pensions. In addition to Oklahoma, the Research Center has printed indexes for Confederate pensions granted by Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. Some of these are also available online. Links for each Confederate state can be found at the National Archives at archives.gov.
Published Resources
- Tennessee Civil War Veteran’s Questionnaires, compiled by Gustavus W. Dyer and John Trotwood Moore
- Oklahoma Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, history and patriots, Alice Ann Askew and Mary Y. Hall
- Civil War Union Soldiers Buried in Oklahoma, N. Dale Talkington and Deone K. Pearcy
- Tributes of Blue: Obituaries of Civil War Union Soldiers and Sailors Buried in Oklahoma, N. Dale Talkington and Deone Pearcy. This resource is available at HeritageQuest and The Making of America.
- 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, United States War Department
Additional Resources
The 1890 Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War is available on microfilm and on subscription databases such as Ancestry.com. The census will provide unit and injuries, if any.
Check the Indian Pioneer Histories (also known as the Indian Pioneer Papers) index for interviews that may cover Civil War experiences. This index is on cards at the Research Center and the interviews are on microfilm.
Contact Us
Oklahoma Historical Society Research Center
Oklahoma History Center
800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
405-522-5225
okhistory.org
