"My great aunt Olive told me that my great, great grandpa held General Custer's horse at Gettysburg. His name was Sam Jones. What can you tell me about him?"

Not all of the inquiries we receive for information about soldiers are so vague, but Gettysburg is often the first choice of the curious who seek information about a soldier-ancestor.

Gettysburg National Military Park does not maintain a record file for all of the soldiers who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg or served during the war. The armies that fought the Battle of Gettysburg were only two of many armies fielded by both sides. Your ancestor may not have been a member of either army at Gettysburg, but involved in another theater of the war. He may have served in a unit assigned to the western theater or on the coast. He may have been an early volunteer or a draftee. He may have served in a regiment raised late in the war or a militia unit.

Over three million men served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War and your ancestor is just one person in that vast list of names. There are many things to consider when looking at an individual's circumstance during the war. Remember that not all soldiers who served from 1861 to 1865 were at Gettysburg and if that's the case, how do you even begin to find out about your ancestor's service? Don't throw in the towel yet! There are many records and books that may help you and they are as close as your local library!

Start your search in your own home. Check for the name of the suspected soldier in a family bible, tax and census records, or old letters. Also look for any mention of the unit he served in, where he was from, and when he died. Rely on written information and don't always count on oral family histories passed down from generation to generation. They are often confused and filled with inaccuracies, so much so that confusion can exist as to which side the soldier served on! Begin with the full name or as much of the soldier's name as you know. Include any variables or other spellings of his name- "Burns" or "Byrnes"; "Steel" or "Steele"?

Once you know your ancestor's full name, look for any mention of where he was living before he joined the army and any semblance of a military record or veteran's pension as these papers may list what regiment he served with. A soldier in service during the Civil War was assigned to a company and a regiment. This may have been a regiment of the U.S. Regulars, which was a unit of the United States Army. More likely he was a member of a volunteer regiment raised by his home state. Some examples are the "11th Virginia Volunteer Infantry" or the "4th Maine Volunteer Infantry". African-American soldiers served in regiments ending with U.S.C.T. which stands for United States Colored Troops. These regiments also had caucasian officers. If your ancestor was an artilleryman, he was assigned to a battery such as "Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery" or "Battery A, 1st North Carolina Artillery". He may have been in a heavy artillery regiment, cavalry, engineers or even the navy. Though infantry regiments were the most common type of service for the Civil War, there were many other branches of service, North and South.

Once you have a name and state where your ancestor lived, check your local library for any rosters of state troops that might be available. Several states, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, compiled and published a list of the soldiers who served in those state regiments soon after the end of the conflict. Other states have followed suit, with many more rosters produced since the 1950's and these might be available at your library. If not, a nearby college library may have the volumes or access to state units on microfilm.

If you were only able to locate the state in which your ancestor lived, there are two sets of books that will help narrow your search. If your ancestor served in either the Union or Confederate armies during the war, he will be listed in one of these volumes:

Once you've identified your ancestor's regiment, you may wish to expand your knowledge of his service including the battles he may have been involved in. Look at the card catalog in your local library for any books on his unit and the battles in which his regiment or the army to which he was assigned, were involved. One excellent book for tracking Union regiments and the army in which they served is by Frederick L. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Morningside Bookshop, Dayton, 1979 reprint). After action reports for the entire war are contained in The War of the Rebellion: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. This multi-volume set is marked and indexed by year and theater of the war. It is also available on cd-rom for your computer and your library may have this available. After you have exhausted the sources at your local library, visit your state's division of archives and history. Many states still hold some personnel records for men who served in state regiments and may have holdings of documents or papers of former officers of the regiment. There could even be hospital or burial records on file as well as state pension records. Most state archivists are very happy to help you get started with your search.

After your turn at the local and state archives, you may wish to go the full route to the National Archives & Records Administration, which maintains all of the muster and pension records for Civil War personnel. You will need to fill out two forms, one for the soldier's muster records and one for his pension records. The forms are Records of Military Veterans NATF Form 86 and Pension and Land Warrant Bounties NATF Form 85. (Remember only Union veterans received Federal pensions!) Write to the National Archives and request the forms as they will not search their records without them or from a phone call. The address is:

National Archives and Records Administration
ATTN: NWCTB
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20408.

You can get copies of the forms by e-mail at inquire@nara.gov. Make certain to specify your name, address, and how many forms you require.

You can visit the National Archives & Records Administration on the web at http://www.archives.gov for further information and to download a copy of Form 86. Due the heavy load of incoming requests, it will take several weeks for you to get a response, so be patient. There is a charge for records that are located and copied for your use.

Also check The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System sponsored by the National Park Service. The system features an on-line database of names of soldiers, sailors, and United States Colored Troops who served in the Civil War based on records at the National Archives. The database is constantly expanding and is a wonderful resource for serious researchers and the curious.

While you're checking the web, look for state museums and archives, educational information sites, and links to genealogy sites. One good place to start is the American Civil War Research Database, though be aware that there is a membership fee for the use of this database.

Good luck with your search and have fun climbing through your family tree!

For further information and help, check out these titles:

Bertram H. Groene, Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor, John F. Blair, Publisher, Winston Salem, 1973

James Neagles, Confederate Research Sources, A Guide to Archive Collections, Ancestry Publishing, Salt Lake City, 1986

Dr. Richard A. Sauers, How To Do Civil War Research, Combined Publishing, Conshohocken, PA, 2000