What kind of records are available for Civil War soldiers?

Great question!  This page will walk you through the types of records available and how to order them.

If you have a Civil War pension index card already (see the image below), that means there should be an entire set of records at the National Archives that we can get for you.    

Pension index cards can be found on these links:  Ancestry, Fold3, or Family Search.  (Family Search is free to search).  If you need help finding the pension index card, go here, tell us what you know, and we'll try to help you out!  

 

There are three records that we pull from at the National Archives for each soldier in order to get a good overview of their service. Those are the pension file, the compiled service records, and the carded medical records.

• The pension file is going to be the best file to get. Those tend to be large files (usually between 50-100 pages long on average). I can't guarantee anything, but these usually have good information in there about the ancestor's service, any injuries he suffered, medical reports about him, statements from other friends and families, etc. It's not unusual to have genealogical information in these files too. I highly recommend you getting the pension files for any ancestor you have in the Civil War. Those normally are $80 for the file if you ordered directly from the National Archives, but I only ask $65.  

 

• Service records will tell if a soldier was transferred, promoted, deserted, killed, captured etc. They’re almost like attendance cards that were taken every month. It will tell where the soldier was and any remarks about him. If he was taken as prisoner of war, there is usually information in there about that. If his enlistment papers still exist, they’d be in there, so it’s not uncommon to find those. These will be $25.  See the note below and the states listed in the box before ordering these

 

• The carded medical records are often overlooked records, and are similar to the service records for each soldier. If the soldier was hospitalized, there should be records. They tell if the soldier was sick, injured or hospitalized It should tell if he died in the hospital as well. They’re a good addition to get the complete picture of your ancestor during the war. Some soldiers have one card in their file, some have ten or more, some have none at all. We can search for these for $20.  

 

• We can get the complete set of records (pension, service records, medical cards) for each soldier for $110.  

 

All of these records can easily be ordered directly through our website using this link (Note:  You'll need the pension index card before placing the order).  All you'll need to do is input the name of the soldier and the information on that pension index card.  It's that easy!  (If you need help with the ordering, contact us here and we'll help you out)

 

If you need help finding the pension index card or have specific questions about the records, go here, tell us what you know, and we'll try to help you out!

 

One thing to note:  Some of the compiled military service records have been digitized already, so in those cases, we won't be able to access those.  If you're looking for a soldier who served in regiments from the following states, please DO NOT order the service records.  You can access those on Fold3.com or the National Archives online catalog.  (This is NOT necessarily the state that the soldier was from, it's the state that is in the regiment name)

State List (these are the service records that are onilne already)