Military Records
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to genealogical researchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
General Military Links
- Overview of Military Records ancestry.com from The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy
- Nationwide Veteran Gravesite Locator (gravelocator.cem.va.gov) Search for burial locations of veterans and their family members in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries, and for veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a government grave marker.
- Pension Project (usgwarchives.net)
Indian War Links
Revolutionary War Links
- Loyalists and Their Times, Vol. 2 (search.ancestry.com) This is a history of the relations, disputes, and challenges between Great Britain, the American Colonies and the United States of America. This work is an attempt to present the story from the Loyalists' point of view, with the aid of documents and records. It also gives the early history and settlement in the British Provinces of America by the Loyalist forefathers. This is the second volume in the two volume series.
- Loyalists in the American Revolution (search.ancestry.com) This work contains the history of the formation of the Tory or Loyalist party in the American Revolution, its persecution and overthrow, and the banishment or death of over 100,000 of these individuals who remained loyal to the British crown. It also contains a classification of the laws directed against the Loyalists in each colony during this time period, making this a great resource for loyalist research.
War of 1812 Links
Civil War Links
- Links from fold3.com
- Board of Commissioners - Emancipation of Slaves in DC - These records include minutes of meetings, docket books, and petitions filed under the acts of April 16 and April 12, 1862, pertaining to the emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia.
- Civil War "Widows' Pensions" - The files are grouped under the soldier's name. The pensioner's name (typically the widow's) is searchable, often giving her maiden name as well. Children's names and other dependents' names are searchable as well. Case files include where and when a man served, details of his service, his life before the war, and his family, including information about his widow, children, and sometimes his parents. These files are unfilmed textual records.
- Brady Civil War Photos - Mathew B Brady and many of the decade's best photographers created the photographs in this collection. There are detailed portraits of notable men of the era, as well as photos of soldiers, living and dead, battlefields, scarred landscapes, and cities burned and bombed by invading troops. They portray the horrors of war and images of life in camp. They represent photojournalism in its infancy and present us with real-life interpretations of our nation at war with itself.
- Civil War Maps - Civil War maps from the collections of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Library of Virginia. Among the reconnaissance, sketch, and theater-of-war maps are the detailed battle maps made by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss for Generals Lee and Jackson, General Sherman's Southern military campaigns, and maps taken from diaries, scrapbooks, and manuscripts. Explore over 2,000 images to gain insights into the histories of battles, campaigns, and regions.
- Civil War Subversion Investigations - Case files were acquired during the war by Associate Judge Advocate Major Levi C. Turner and, after early 1862, by the War Department under Lafayette C. Baker. The Turner files mostly relate to the arrest, parole, and release of suspects, while the Baker files include reports submitted by private individuals and government officials relating to suspicious persons and alleged subversive activity. A case file may contain one to several hundred documents.
- Civil War and Later Veterans Pension Index - This publication contains index cards for pension applications of veterans who served in the U.S. Army between 1861 and 1900, including wars other than the Civil War. Records are sorted by units within regiments from each state in the Union. Find a soldier by searching on his name or browse by regiment. Learn about his term of service, and use the information to request his pension record. Unique to this series of records are death dates and locations for many of the veterans who died after the war.
- Confederate Amnesty Papers - These case files are organized by state, then by petitioner's last name. The majority is predictably from the south, although a few northern states are represented. Applications for pardon were submitted to President Andrew Johnson by former Confederates excluded from the provisions of his amnesty proclamation of May 29, 1865, together with affidavits, oaths of allegiance, recommendations for executive clemency, and other accompanying papers. Most case files are 3-6 handwritten pages, some are longer.
- Links from familysearch.org
- United States, Civil War Confederate Applications for Pardons, 1865-1867 - Applications for pardons,1865-1867, submitted to the President Andrew Johnson by former Confederates, excluded from the proclamation of May 29, 1865. The case files include affidavits, oaths of allegiance, recommendation for clemency, and other papers.
- United States, Civil War Confederate Papers of Citizens or Businesses, 1861-1865 - Approximately 650,000 vouchers and other documents pertaining to goods and services rendered to the Confederate Government by individuals and businesses.
- United States, Civil War Records of Confederate Nonregiment Soldiers, 1861-1865 - Confederate service records of general and staff officers and nonregimental enlisted men who did not serve in any particular regiment, company or special corps.
- United States, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 - Confederate service records of soldiers who served in organizations raised by the Confederate Government.
- United States, Civil War Service Records of Union Colored Troops, 1863-1865 - Union service records of soldiers who served in the United States Colored Troops.
- United States, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1864-1866 - Union service records of Confederate prisoners of war who enlisted and served in the 1st- 6th U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiments.
- United States, Civil War Soldiers Index - Index of soldiers who served in the Civil War, 1861-1865 culled from 6.3 million soldier records in the General Index Cards to the Compiled Military Service Records in the National Archives.
- United States, Civil War Unfiled Papers of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 - Unfiled papers and slips of Confederate service records of soldiers that were not interfiled in the compiled service records.
- United States, Civil War Widows and Other Dependents Pension Files - Approved pension case files of widows and other dependents of soldiers submitted between 1861 and 1934 and sailors between 1910 and 1934.
- United States, Civil War and Later Pension Files, 1861-1917
- Links from Miscellaneous Sites
- Confederate Resources (http://history-sites.com/)
- Constitution of the Confederate States of America (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp)
- Confederate Constitution (http://www.maitreg.com/politics/documents/confederate.asp)
- The Papers of Jefferson Davis (http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/)
- Historic Blakeley State Park (http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/civilwar.asp)
- Hawkins' Division of 6,000 Black Troops (http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/usct.htm)
- The Official Site of the Friends of the Hunley (http://www.hunley.org/)
- The Hunley (http://www.thehunley.com/Artifacts/buttontype.htm)
- Denbigh: Archaeology of a Civil War Blockade Runner (http://ina.tamu.edu/denbigh/)
- Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, 1832-1915: A Southern Woman's War Time Reminiscences (http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/saxon/menu.html
- Frances Woolfolk Wallace, b. 1835, Diary, March 19-August 25, 1864 (http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/wallace/menu.html)
- A Belle of the Fifties: Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama, Covering Social and Political Life in Washington and the South, 1853-66. (http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/clay/menu.html)
- American Civil War Homepage (http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/)
- U.S. Civil War Center (http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/)
- Confederate Officers Photo Album (http://www.archives.alabama.gov/conoffalb/index.html)
- Civil War Photographs (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html)
- The Civil War Preservation Trust (civilwar.org)
- Jews in the Civil War (jewish-history.com)
- National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/)
- Civil War Battle summaries by state (http://www2.cr.nps.gov/abpp/battles/bystate.htm)
- National Archives--Research in Military Records: Civil War (archives.gov)
- Confederate Officers Photograph Album - This collection contains one hundred and ninety-two cartes-de-visite photographs of officers who served in the Confederate army. The majority of the officers served as either major generals or brigadier generals in the Confederate forces. The collection includes the photographs of many lesser known officers as well as the famous; such as Robert E. Lee, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, =9John Tyler Morgan, Stonewall Jackson, and JEB Stuart.
- Cards of Union Civil War Headstones (genealogytrails.com)
