First, the National Archives does indeed have the CSA records. I have gotten all my southern family's records from there. Second, there are several wonderful places on the internet for information. I found one of them by simply typing the name of the veteran into a search engine, and it came up with some piece of information on some man's Civil War website. Try typing in Civil War and your ancestor's state into a search engine and see where it takes you. But you'll find more if you already know what regiment, etc., he was in, and for that, write to the archives. They do have the records. Susan J