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Online Confederate Records

Records about Confederate soldiers are certainly less prevalent than those for their Union counterparts.  But many more Confederate records exist than are widely known – and many of those records are online.  In some cases where access to these records requires a subscription, they are available elsewhere for free.

Here we offer a chart showing the most significant Confederate records that are available online with direct links to the search engines for those databases.

Note: for pension records, look in the state(s) where the veteran and/or his widow lived after the war, not the state for which he served. For an overview of Confederate pensions, see this article.

Online Confederate Records1
Anc.=Ancestry.com    F3=Fold3.com   FS=FamilySearh.org   MH=MyHeritage.com  SG=State Government Resource
NARA=National Archives and Records Administration   LOC=Library of Congress

Online Records

Other Links and Offline Collections:

Pensions First Offered

1867: loss of limb
1886: widows
1891: indigent vets.
1891: indigent widows

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

Never

Online Records

Index to Service Records on FS (free)
Service Records on NARA (free)
Service Records on F3 ($)

Pensions First Offered3

Never

Online Records

Index to Service Records on FS (free)
Service Records on NARA (free)
Service Records on F3 ($)

Pensions First Offered

1891: disabled vets.
1915: indigent widows

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

1885: veterans
1889: widows

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

1885: veterans
1889: widows

Online Records

Index to Service Records on FS (free)
Service Records on NARA (free)
Service Records on F3 ($)
Roster of Soldiers on FS (free)
1864 Census to Reorganize the Militia on Anc. ($ or free index)
Governor’s Civil War Correspondence on Anc. ($ or free index)
Records of the Soldiers’ Home 1901-1930 on FS (free)

Pensions First Offered

1898: veterans
1898: widows

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

Never

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

1867: loss of eye/limb
1867: widows
1885: any disability

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

1887: disabled vets.
1887: widows
1919: all vets

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

1889: disabled or indigent vets.
1889: widows

Online Records

Pensions First Offered

1888: all veterans
1888: widows

Online Records

 

For additions or corrections, please write to info@gopherrecords.com or leave a comment below.

 

Notes:

1 Every state archives holds Confederate records that are not online and therefore are not represented in this chart.  Contact the archive to inquire about its offline collection. We have not attempted to itemize county-specific Confederate records, veteran lists, specific Confederate cemeteries, or specific prisoner of war camps. FamilySearch.org, in particular, offers free access to hundreds of such records online and through their Family History Centers.

2 Replace the 3- or 4-letter code in the search field with the name of your soldier.

3 Regiments that were formed directly by the Confederate government and not by any individual state.

See also:

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