---------- > From: John Rigdon <GaLinaHist@AOL.COM> > To: DEEP-SOUTH-ROOTS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU > Subject: [D-S] Finding Confederate Ancestors > Date: Sunday, November 01, 1998 6:16 AM > Knowing the unit or regiment a person served in is indeed a key piece of information for beginning a search. Here are some beginning pointers. For Federal (northern) men. Records are generally complete but exist largely only on microfilm at the national archives. Regimental histories and such are really spotty. Broadfoot Publishing is working on an index but it took a hundred years to complete the Confederate index so don't look for it anytime soon. I believe partial indexes are being incrementally published, but I have not personally seen these. A brief outline sketch of each regiment may be found in Dyer's "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" the 3 (4?) volume set is pretty widely available and is also included on the Civil War CD-ROM For Confederate Men Broadfoot Publishing's wonderful set essentially lists every man who served and the unit they belonged to. I have access to this set (though I don't personally own one - we can always dream) and will gladly to lookups. All this will tell you however is the unit / regiment and company. Many times the men are identified by initials only, and some common names may have dozens of entries, but it's a start. Now for the state level research. Generally the microfilm of the original rosters and other records are at the state archives. Indexes / publication of these records are really spotty. There are three important general reference works. Sifakis and Curte both have regimental sketch histories and Dornbusch has a bibliography of works by state and regiment. VIRGINIA - approximately 1/3 of the regiments formed have written histories. I do not know of any state wide indexes NORTH CAROLINA - a wonderful set of books was recently published by the state which is essentially complete for every man who served. This set of books is not widely circulated as yet, but I have seen it in the Spartanburg (SC) County Library. I don't get up there often however, so I really can't offer to do lookups unless you can wait several months. SOUTH CAROLINA - I could write a book on the shameful way this important set of records has been ignored by the state. Col. Rivers was commissioned to begin a Roll of Honor in 1862, never paid for his work, but he accumulated a great deal of records on those who were killed, and this has just recently been published by teh state archives in a book entitled "Roll of Honor" A much better book which incorporates and extends Roll of Honor is Broken Fortunes which was recently published by the State Historical Society. This book contains the names and death information of 18,666 men who died in the war (approx. 90%). State Historian A. S. Salley began a project around the turn of the century to compile rosters. His work has been narrowly circulated, but it covers Infantry Regiments 1-5 - some 15,000 men. I estimate that some 65,000 men served from South Carolina, and to date I have identified approx. half of them - with about 16,000 now listed on my web site, The Civil War in South Carolina http://www.researchonline.net/sccw GEORGIA - Lillian Henderson put together a set of rosters entitled "Rosters of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia" which covers Infantry Regiments 1-66. Many people do not realize however that this set - as wonderful as it is - represents only about half of the men who served from Georgia. None of the Cavalry, Artillery, Navy, and special forces (state troops, etc.) are included. My site, The Civil War in Georgia focuses on this "other half", but to date I have accomplished little more than listing all of the various regiments. The rosters and regimental histories are quite spotty. The Civil War in Georgia http://www.researchonline.net/gacw FLORIDA - Did not provide a lot of troops. I don't know of anything that has been done beyond the sketch histories done by Crute and Sifakis and the bibliography done by Dornbush. ALABAMA - The beginnings of a state wide inventory has been started. Regimental Histories are quite spotty TENNESSEE - Records are quite spotty. KENTUCKY - Records are quite spotty. LOUISIANNA - Records are quite spotty. MISSISSIPPI - Records are quite spotty. TEXAS - Records are quite spotty. MISSOURI - Records are quite spotty. ARKANSAS - Records are quite spotty. If anyone can add to this, please drop me a note. Maureen Reed maintains a great page of links by state to Military Records on Line as a part of USIGS. John Rigdon