A Guide to Civil War Research.
Check the Indexes
You are now ready to check the available indexes to identify the unit in which your ancestor served. We maintain an index to each state. Go to the Master Menu, then choose the state, then click on the State Civil War Soldiers Index. You can then browse the index by last name.
There is also an index on line at the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.
http://www.civilwar.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm
Additionally Broadfoot Publishing has an index that may be found in larger libraries.
These three indexes differ from each other by about 5%.
Our index was primarily derived from the index at the State Archives with additional names added and first names inserted over the years. Each state index is essentially complete.
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System is derived from the National Archives Index. To my knowledge there has been no effort to update the names for spelling or to add first names to the records as they appear on the microfilm.
The Broadfoot Index is also a “managed” index as ours is. It contains a comparable number of names. It is not available on line.
If you do not know the state of service, you can use our search funtion at the top of this page to search for names across all states.
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This set of OnLine lessons is excerpted from our "Guide to Civil War Research" books. We have specific volumes for some states and a general volume which will help you research other states.