CherOhkee wrote: > > Can anyone tell me where I can go, possibly online, to search for names of > Confederate Soldiers, and how to obtain their records? > I have three ancestors who fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy, and > would like to have their service records. > > Thanks all, > Vickie ============ITEM #1============ Source: South Carolina Historical Society http://www.historic.com/schs/index.html Dorchester County (S.C.) Clerk of Court. Confederate service enrollment book, ca. 1902. 1 v. Request #: 34/635 OvrSz In 1902 an act of the South Carolina legislature made it the duty of the clerk of court of each county to record the names of Confederate veterans in a county enrollment book, according to a plan adopted by the convention of Confederate Veterans on May 10, 1901. Township committees turned over a township enrollment book to the county clerk of court, who recorded those names in a county enrollment book. Large bound volume lists men from Dorchester County (S.C.) who served in state and Confederate service during the Civil War. Volume contains 300 pages of preprinted forms with 269 handwritten entries. Enties may include the name, rank, company, regiment, township, and date and place of death, and other causes of discharge from service. No entry is complete in all details and 45 entries consist of names only. The information from the enrollment book has been compiled in a pamphlet (1993) entitled "Dorchester County and Township Confederate Service Enrollment Book" (PAM 929.37 Dor 1902). Cite as: Dorchester County (S.C.). Clerk of Court. Confederate service enrollment book, ca. 1902. (34/635 OvrSz) South Carolina Historical Society. Source: South Carolina Historical Society 100 Meeting Street Charleston,SC 29401 Voice: (803) 723-3225 FAX: (803) 723-8584 (area code changes to 843 in March 1988) YOU CAN SEARCH THE ONLINE CATALOGS FOR ABSTRACTS LIKE THIS! South Carolina Historical Research Library Catalogs http://www.historic.com/schs/index.html http://www2.citadel.edu/otherserv/schs/indexmss.html ============ITEM #2============ National Archives and Records Administration Source: http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/civilwar.html Confederate Records For Confederate army soldiers, there are two major records in NARA that provide information on military service: (1) compiled military service record (CMSR) and (2) records reproduced in microfilm publication M861, Compiled Records Showing Service of Military Units in Confederate Organizations (74 rolls). Records relating to Confederate soldiers are typically less complete than those relating to Union soldiers because many Confederate records did not survive the war. NARA does not have pension files for Confederate soldiers. Pensions were granted to Confederate veterans and their widows and minor children by the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia; these records are in the state archives or equivalent agency. Publications Researchers should visit public libraries to find books and periodicals about Civil War battles, strategies, uniforms, and the political and social context of the times. Useful publications include: U.S. War Department. War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880-1900. Reprint, Gettysburg, PA: National Historical Society, 1971-72. Includes battle reports and correspondence of Union and Confederate regiments. U.S. Naval War Records Office. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. 30 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1874-1922. Reprint, Gettysburg, PA: National Historical Society, 1971. Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co., 1908. Reprint, Dayton, OH: National Historical Society, 1979. Lists battles and campaigns for Union regiments and also gives the composition of corps and armies, i.e., such as the Army of the Potomac. Take note, however, that regimental battle lists cannot be considered proof that any particular soldier fought in various battles since different companies in the regiment may have had different assignments, or an individual soldier may have been absent due to sickness, desertion, temporary assignment to other duties, or other causes. Dornbusch, Charles E. Military Bibliography of the Civil War. 4 vols. New York: New York Public Library, 1971-87. A guide to published Union and Confederate unit histories. Hewett, Janet B., et al. Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 51 vols. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1994-97. Sifakis, Stewart. Compendium of the Confederate Armies. 11 vols. New York: Facts on File, 1992-97. Long, Everette B. Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. Randall, James, and David Donald. Civil War and Reconstruction. Boston: Heath, 1961. Catton, Bruce. The Centennial History of the Civil War. 3 vols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961-65. Foote, Shelby. The Civil War. 3 vols. New York, NY: Random House, 1958-74. Wiley, Bell I. The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. Wiley, Bell I. The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1978. Basler, Roy P., ed. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Periodicals such as Civil War History, Civil War Times Illustrated, and Blue and Gray are also informative. These magazines are often found in public libraries. Discussion of the Basic Records Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR) Each volunteer soldier has one Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) for each regiment in which he served. The CMSR contains basic information about the soldier's military career, and it is the first source the researcher should consult. The CMSR is an envelope (a jacket) containing one or more cards. These cards typically indicate that the soldier was present or absent during a certain period of time. Other cards may indicate the date of enlistment and discharge, amount of bounty paid him, and other information such as wounds received during battle or hospitalization for injury or illness. The soldier's place of birth may be indicated; if foreign born, only the country of birth is stated. The CMSR may contain an internal jacket for so-called "personal papers" of various kinds. These may include a copy of the soldier's enlistment paper, papers relating to his capture and release as a prisoner of war, or a statement that he had no personal property with him when he died. Note, however, that the CMSR rarely indicates battles in which a soldier fought; that information must be derived from other sources. A CMSR is as complete as the surviving records of an individual soldier or his unit. The War Department compiled the CMSRs from the original muster rolls and other records some years after the war to permit more rapid and efficient checking of military and medical records in connection with claims for pensions and other veterans' benefits. The abstracts were so carefully prepared that it is rarely necessary to consult the original muster rolls and other records from which they were made. When the War Department created CMSRs at the turn of the century, information from company muster rolls, regimental returns, descriptive books, hospital rolls, and other records was copied verbatim onto cards. A separate card was prepared each time an individual name appeared on a document. These cards were all numbered on the back, and these numbers were entered onto the outside jacket containing the cards. The numbers on the jacket correspond with the numbers on the cards within the jacket. These numbers were used by the War Department only for control purposes while the CMSRs were being created; the numbers do not refer to other records regarding a veteran nor are they useful for reference purposes today. -- + ------------------------------------------------------------------ + | Steven J. Coker [email protected] | | Home: PO Box 359, Charleston, SC 29402 [email protected] | | Work: PO Box 919, Charleston, SC 29402 [email protected] | | Home: 803-571-4586 http://www.wp.com/Coker | | Work: 803-727-4330 http://www.geocities.com/Paris/2780 | | Work: 800-208-2054 http://www.awod.com/gallery/rwav/cokers | + ------------------------------------------------------------------ +