Confederate Service Records

Soldiers
Confederate soldiers may have served from a military unit raised by the Confederate Government or by an individual Confederate state. Most Confederate soldiers served with a unit raised in the community where they lived.
 * Regulations of the Army of the Confederate States

Compiled Service Records
The Compiled Service Records for Confederate soldiers were made by the United States Record and Pension Office in the War department, beginning in 1903. The Record and Pension Office made card abstracts from records in the War Department Collection of Confederate Records and from other borrowed documents. In addition to the cards, original documents that related only to the individual soldier were included.

The card abstracts were made from original muster rolls, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers, Union prison registers and rolls, parole rolls, and inspection reports. Service records may provide rank, unit, date of enlistment, length of service, age, place of birth, and date of death. The Compiled Service Records were made in an effort to obtain as nearly complete record of military service as possible at the time.

See card examples and descriptions on Fold3.com.

The Compiled Service Records ($) (Fold3.com) of Confederate soldiers are available online. In the future, these records will be made available at no charge through the National Archives web site. Transcriptions of the records are available on FamilySearch. The service records are also available to access at no charge at any library that provides free access to Fold3.

The Family Search Historical Records online Collection has some confederate soldier records.


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 * — images
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Compiled Service Records of Individual States
The following three collections are not needed if searching the entire collection Compiled Service Records available on Fold3.com. They are include in that database. If you are using the records of the individual states, however, the following three collections should also be searched as they are not included in the compiled service records of the individual states.


 * Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in Organizations Raised Directly by the Confederate Government. National Archives Microfilm Publication M258. (Worldcat) (Fold3) ($) . -- M258 includes records for the Indian Territory (Oklahoma). National Archives descriptive pamphlet M258.pdf . NARA M818.
 * "Compiled Service Records of Confederate General and Staff Officers and Nonregimental Enlisted Men". National Archives Microfilm Publication M331. Includes those men performing staff duties. (Fold3) ($) . National Archives descriptive pamphlet M331.pdf . NARA M818.
 * "Unfiled Papers and Slips Belonging to Confederate Compiled Service Records". National Archives Microfilm Publication M347. (Fold3) ($) . National Archives descriptive pamphlet M347.pdf

Officers
The "Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army..." by Francis B. Heitman lists U.S. Army officers who joined the Confederate Army and the highest rank they attained. Biographical Sketches
 * 1861 - 1865 at FamilySearch — How to Use this Collection; index and images

For biographical sketches and other information about officers in addition to the service records, see the following:


 * Includes birth, death year; rank, etc. Includes staff.
 * Includes names of officer, parents, birth date, service history, marriage, and death information.
 * The appendix contains information about officers and is arranged by rank.
 * Contains name, rank, and unit.
 * The appendix contains an additional list of 3,524 field officers by name, identifying rank, and unit.
 * Some entries list the state of birth, state appointed from, service history, and rank.
 * Contains brief sketches of military service with some pictures and birth and death information.
 * Contains brief sketches of military service with some pictures and birth and death information.

Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System allows name searching for soldiers. The result set gives the regiments for the soldiers. Then you can check the Wiki regiment pages to determine counties. Often knowing the counties that had men in a regiment will help you determine if a soldier was your ancestor.

Government Records

 * U.S. Navy Department. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. 30 Volumes. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894–1922. National Archives Microfilm Publication M275. (films 1490058–88) Similar to the official records of the armies, it is known as the ORN (Official Records . . . Navy). Its two series contain reports and correspondence on the Northern blockade of Southern ports and on matters concerning the Confederate Navy. Volume 1, series II has an index to Union and Confederate ships, statistical data, and muster rolls of confederate vessels.


 * The following is an index to this set:


 * Knox, Dudley W. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion . . . General Index. . . . 1927. Reprint, New York, New York: Antiquarian Press, 1961. (FHL book 973 M2unr index; film 0924604 item 2.) Alphabetically arranged with reference to series and volume number. The page number is located by searching the index in the specific volume referred to in the general index.


 * Confederate Naval and Marine Personnel Records (NARA M260) has information about sailors and Marines abstracted from original documents, such as hospital, prison, and parole records.

Other Resources

 * Thomas Truxtun Moebs Confederate States Navy Research Guide: Confederate naval imprints described and annotated, chronology of naval operation and administration, marine corps and naval officer biographies, description and service of vessels, subject bibliography  Williamsburg, Virginia : Moebs Publishing Co., c1991 FHL 973 M2moe contains biographical sketches of Naval and Marine officers, naval histories of Confederate naval vessels, and a subject bibliography of sources.(Worldcat)


 * Service Records of Confederate Enlisted Marines (Worldcat) lists name, company, enlistment date, and place along with brief service histories.

Wiki articles describing the FamilySearch online collections above are found at:


 * Alabama, Civil War Service Records of Condederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Arizona Service Records of Confederate Soldiers of the Civil War (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Arkansas, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Florida, Service Records of Confederate Soldiers of the Civil War - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Georgia, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Kentucky, Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Soldiers of the Civil War (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Louisiana, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers(FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Maryland, Civil War Service Records of ConfederateSoldiers(FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Mississippi, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Missouri, Civil War Service Records of Confedrate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * North Carolina, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * South Carolina Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Tennessee, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers (FamilySearch Historical
 * Texas, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * Virginia, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records


 * United States, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * United States, Civil War Records of Confederate Nonregiment Soldiers - FamilySearch Historical Records
 * United States Unfiled Papers and Slips Belonging to Confederate Compiled Service Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

For Further Reading

 * Desmond Walls Allen.  Which Henry Cook? A Methodology for Searching Confederate Ancestors. Prologue 27 (Fall,1995):
 * John P. Beeben." Confederate Court-Martial Records: An Alternate Research Strategy for Missing Case Files." NGS Magazine 41 # 1 (January-March 2015): 36-40. FHL 973 D25ngs
 * Marie Varrelman Melchiori.Searching for Confederate Soldier Records at the National Archives. NGS Magazine (July, August, September, 2005):15-18.
 * John M. Sacher, Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers Louisiana state University Press, 2022