I would like to order military records from the Civil War for my gggf. I only have information about his name and company and name of his group. off the online index. He was in AL. Is this enough to get his records. Can you please give me instructions on how to apply and what information I need to apply please. Your help greatly appreciated Thank you, Joan joabregarden1a@aol.com

Please go to the following link for some information about Confederate pension records. http://www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy/military/confederate_pension_records.html This link will lead to NATF Form 86, which you can use to order copies of Confederate service records held by the National Archives. http://www.archives.gov/research_room/obtain_copies/veterans_service_records.html#nara I believe you will need your ancestor's name, the state where he resided at the time of his enlistment and the designation of his unit. If you don't have the unit designation, you can search for it on the internet or at your local library (if they have the indexes). I am no expert, but I understand that former Confederate states offered pensions to Confederate veterans and widows residing in the state. So, for example, if a man served in a Confederate unit from Alabama but resided in Florida at the time of his pension application, he would apply to the state of Florida for a pension. Any records pertaining to this pension application would be held by the state of Florida. Alabama would have no record of the pension. Nor would the United States. The former Confederate States did not provide pensions for Union veterans or their widows, and northern ("Union") states did not provide pensions for Confederate veterans or widows (I am not sure about the border states). The United States government provided for pensions to Union veterans or their widows (thus, their pensions were paid for to some extent by southern taxpayers), but no pensions or other benefits to Confederate veterans or widows. I hope this will help. Good luck. Bill King king.w.d@comcast.net