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Civil War Records Blog

  • Multiple pension index cards for the same soldier

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Did you know there are multiple versions of the same pension index cards out there? Ancestry has one version in their database, and Fold3 has anoth...

  • What do all those red numbers mean?

    by Brian Rhinehart
    What do all those red numbers mean? The short answer is that they are serial numbers. And while the numbers do have meaning behind them, they reall...

  • Civil War draft registrations

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Let’s talk about Civil War draft registration records. These can be great resources, but they can also be one of the most misused sources when it ...

  • Where are the discharge papers?

    by Brian Rhinehart
    You may be surprised to hear that there is no record group at the National Archives that contains the Civil War discharge papers. These discharges...

  • What is a Civil War pension file?

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Most Civil War soldiers were eligible to apply for pension benefits after the war. In some cases they were immediately eligible, but in most cases...

  • Civil War enlistment papers

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Looking for your ancestor’s Civil War enlistment papers? These are kept at the National Archives, but they’d be in one of two record groups there....

  • Civil War soldiers and the Homestead Act

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Another unusual place to find Civil War information about your ancestor at the National Archives would be Homestead records. The Homestead Act was...

  • Old War pensions

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Do you have a military ancestor but have never found a pension file for him? Try looking in the Old War pension index on FamilySearch. https://www...

  • Great finds in an 1812 bounty land application!

    by Brian Rhinehart
    If you have family who served in the war of 1812, you need to check to see if they ever applied for bounty land. Many of these bounty land applica...

  • Civil War soldiers and bounty payments

    by Brian Rhinehart
    Did you know that many Civil War soldiers were paid money to enlist? Some soldiers did fight out of a sense of patriotic duty, but many also saw i...

  • Did he really run away to join the war?

    by Brian Rhinehart
    You know the story– great uncle so-and-so ran away from the south, changed his name and joined the Union Army against his father’s wishes. Every f...

  • Denied pensions

    by Brian Rhinehart
    A question I get asked frequently is if it’s still worth it to order the Civil War pension file for a soldier who’s application wasn’t approved. T...