The Civil War was the first war in American history in which a substantial proportion of the adult male population participated. Almost every American would have known friends, family members, or neighbors who marched off to war, many never to return. The service records of these men, North and South, are contained in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System.

Please note that the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System contains just an index of the men who served in the Civil War with only rudimentary information from the service records (including name, rank and unit in which they served). The full service records are housed at the National Archives and Records Administration. Click here for information about obtaining copies of those records, using the film number listed in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System record.

Additionally, all records in this database have been transcribed from the National Archives' original documents; alternate names and/or misspellings are recorded as initially documented.

